Rana Gurjit Singh, the current minister for power and irrigation in the Capt. Amarinder Singh led Congress government in Punjab has submitted his resignation to the chief minister. The news came in today after past several days of allegations and counter allegations.
Although Captain Amarinder Singh had not yet accepted the resignation, Rana Gurjit Singh has confirmed he has, in fact, submitted his resignation letter.
Allegations against him surfaced last year when the Indian Express published a report where it said he and his wife Rana Rajbans Kaur had taken loans from the same three companies that paid a firm, the firm then, in turn, paid for 50% of the bid amount for two sand mines. The sand mines were then allocated to two former employees of Rana Gurjit Singh.
The three companies are RJS Traders Pvt Ltd, RJ Tex fabs Pvt Ltd and Jay Aar Builders Pvt Ltd. The interesting thing to note was that RJS Traders Pvt Ltd has provided the same address as Rana Sugars Ltd, Rana Polycots Ltd and Rana Informatics Ltd, all owned by the family of the minister.
As per the affidavit filed by Rana Gurjit Singh, he has taken loans worth several crores from these companies. However, after repeated allegations, the Chief Minister had set up a panel of inquiry led by retired justice J S Narang. The panel gave Rana Gurjit a clean chit on the charges. At the same time, the panel had also asked the government to cancel all mining allocations and start fresh auctions. Later investigations unearthed that even if Rana Gurjit had himself not been involved in official board of the respective companies, his family members and employees had been. Even his cook had bid Rs 26 crore for the auctions. All the companies are mentioned are owned by the minister’s family members.
The Shiromani Akali Dal had also tweeted earlier alleging that Rana Gurjit had betrayed the Sikh community by “exonerating the Gandhis of the Sikh genocide of 1984”
S. Maheshinder Singh Grewal said Rana Gurjit Singh had betrayed the Sikh community by giving a clean chit to the Gandhi family which had engineered the 1984 Sikh genocide solely to retain his ministry which was slipping away from his hands due to grave allegations of corruption. pic.twitter.com/cnDiBsELy9
— Shiromani Akali Dal (@Akali_Dal_) January 13, 2018
The Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab has been demanding his resignation for several months now. Bhagwant Mann of AAP has led marches demanding the chief minister to sack Rana Gurjit Singh.
