AAP out rightly rejects clean chit to Minister Dharamsot in multi-crore scholarship

Shall move court against the clean chit given to minister: Harpal Singh Cheema

AAP to lay siege to CM Amarinder Singh’s Siswan farmhouse to stage protest

Nabaz-e-Punjab Bureau, Chandigarh, October 3:
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab has categorically rejected the inquiry report of the committee comprising three IAS officers, constituted by the Punjab government, and giving ‘clean chit’ to Cabinet Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot in the multi-crore Post Matric Scholarship Scheme to students of poor and dalit families in the state, raising question of propriety of interrogation by Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, the then Director and now Congress MLA.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here on Saturday, senior leader of the party and Leader of Opposition LoP Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Rs 64 crore scam was exposed by Additional Chief Secretary level IAS officer on the basis of facts, which pointed accusing finger towards Minister Dharamsot.
He said that, instead of cracking a whip on the tainted minister and his corrupt gang, the Amarinder Singh government issued a ‘clean chit’ to its corrupt minister in a typical traditional, as had been given the who’s who close to power involving in number of other scams, including the sand and gravel mafia, liquor mafia and the goonda tax gangs calling the shots in connivance with the political masters, saying the Badals too had been doing exactly that.
Cheema said, “We out rightly reject the fake and frivolous clean chit given to the minister by the so-called investigation team. This is a double whammy for millions of meritorious Dalit and poor students across the state, who had been debarred from getting higher education. Awarding a clean chit to Dharamsot in the multi-crore scholarship scam proves beyond doubt that part of the ‘slush’ money’ had gone to Siswan farmhouse. We shall lay siege to CM Amarinder Singh’s Siswan farmhouse to stage our protest against the decision.”
The LoP on the occasion informed that the AAP would file a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the multi-crore scam involving the tainted minister Dharamsot. He reiterated his party’s demand for a thorough probe into the whole scam by the CBI under the watch of a sitting High Court judge.
Accusing the BJP government at the Center of being anti-Dalit to core, Cheema said that had the intentions of the Modi government fair and pro-poor, not only those involved in the multi-crore scholarship scam would have put behind the bars, but also those involved in such scams since 2012, ensuring justice to lakhs of Dalit and poor students by putting them behind the behind bars, including those involved in the over Rs 1,200 crore in the scholarship scheme scam.
Harpal Singh Cheema alleged that the ruling Congress, SAD-BJP and BJP were hell bent on depriving the children of dalits and those common households of education so that these sections were used as vote banks.
Harpal Cheema questioned that if the Kejriwal government in Delhi could bear the expenses of Dalits and needy students under the Right to Education (RTE) seeking coaching from reputed coaching centers, why couldn’t this be replicated in Punjab?.