“Commotion in the Assembly, the House is adjourned: Finance Minister Cheema says land was bought for mining; Bajwa says the minister takes 1.25 crore from the distillery.”
Floods were the topic of discussion on the second and last day of the Punjab Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s extraordinary session in the Assembly. Our ministers are working on the floods, said Finance Minister Harpal Cheema. However, the Congress minister posted a notice outside his home stating that he would not be hosting a public meeting when Corona arrived. Congress MLA Pratap Bajwa and AAP MLA Dera Baba Nanak Gurdas Randhawa met in person to discuss the canal issue.
Gurdass Randhawa, an AAP MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, and Aruna Chaudhary, a Congress MLA, got into a heated argument about drainage. In response to Randhawa’s assertion that Chaudhary’s party had never addressed the matter, Chaudhary suggested forming a committee to look into the matter and “separate the milk from the water”, a Hindi expression that means to distinguish fact from fiction.
The opposition leader was chastised by Finance Minister Harpal Cheema, who implied that they intended to mine the area by questioning why they needed to purchase land close to the Dhussi Dam.
Pratap Bajwa retorted that the land was purchased from the government for a cost. He claimed that Cheema receives 35 to 40 crore rupees a month from these distilleries alone and accused them of accepting bribes from each one.
A motion to approve 20,000 crore rupees in central government funds is also mentioned in the report. At the conclusion of the meeting, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is anticipated to give a speech. Lastly, it mentions that the BJP called a “Janata di Vidhan Sabha” (People’s Assembly) at Sector-37 instead of attending the session. According to Harbhajan ETO, the BJP should have voiced their opinions in the assembly instead of escaping the debate. ‘By holding a parallel session, the BJP is mocking the constitution,’ said Finance Minister Harpal Cheema.
Harpal Singh Cheema questions Bajwa about why, on July 15, 25 he purchased land in Gurdaspur’s Fulra village under his wife’s name. He wonders why they had to purchase 1.25 acres of land close to the Dhussi Dam and the Beas River. According to Cheema, they planned to mine the sand since they knew it would be there.
In response, Bajwa requests that Cheema uphold the house’s etiquette.
Cheema then charges Bajwa with purchasing ten acres in the village of Passwal, which is situated on the banks of the Beas and close to the Dhussi dam, in addition to this single land acquisition. He asserts that in order to save their land, a bund was constructed in 2017 and 2019 at a cost of one crore eighteen lakh rupees. They want protection, but farmers do not. “I have purchased the land,” Bajwa retorted. They collected the stamp duty. I didn’t steal it; I got it from the proprietors. Were the stones placed there by their government? I would like to know what became of the excise duty of 12,000 crore rupees. From each spirits factory, the Excise Minister collects 1.25 crore rupees. Each month, they get between 35 and 40 crore rupees from the distilleries.
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