Opposition parties in Punjab today claimed that the acceptance of resignation of Rana Gurjit Singh as power and irrigation minister proved that the corruption allegations levelled by them in the sand mining auctions were correct.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had today said in Delhi that he accepted the resignation of Rana from the council of ministers after discussing the issue with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Rana had tendered his resignation 10 days ago after being accused of illegally bagging sand mining contracts. It was alleged that he had acquired sand and gravel mining contracts through "benami transactions in the names of his cook and office staff".
Terming the acceptance of resignation as "too little, too late", the SAD said the Congress could "wash the taint of the "sand mining scam" by registering a criminal case against Rana and cancel allocations.
"It is shocking that the chief minister turned a blind eye to the sand mining scam for 10 months and kept giving clean chits to the tainted minister," former minister and SAD spokesman Daljit Cheema said.
He said it was also surprising that the CM took the matter to Congress president for discussion.
"Criminal matters such as the sand mining scam should be dealt with on merit by the chief minister. How can government files be shared with Rahul Gandhi? Only party matters can be taken up with the Congress high command," Cheema said.
Punjab's main opposition party AAP termed the resignation of Rana as a victory of the party and its campaign against corruption.
"The pressure of public and AAP's commitment to root out corruption resulted in dropping of the minister Rana Gurjit from Punjab cabinet," a joint statement issued by leaders of the party said.
The statement was issued by state AAP chief Bhagwant Mann and MLAs Aman Arora and Sarabjit Kaur Manuke among others.
They hailed the acceptance of the minister's resignation, but also said that it should have come immediately after the controversy erupted last year.
The Punjab BJP said the CM accepting the resignation proved that the allegations of corruption against Rana were correct.
"The acceptance of resignation of Rana Gurjit by the CM under pressure of the party high command proves the corruption allegations in the sand mining auctions levelled by the opposition right," Punjab BJP chief and union minister Vijay Sampla said.
He also raised question over the formation of the Justice Narang Commission to probe the allegations of impropriety against Rana in the multi-crore sand mining auctions.
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