Chandigarh: The special committee of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha today accused former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of not cooperating with it. It rejected his plea contesting the validity of the committee to look into the land deal of the Amritsar Improvement Trust during the Congress rule. Amarinder said he would not appear before the committee again and contest its constitutional validity in the high court. Committee chairman and chief parliamentary secretary Harish Rai Dhanda, SAD MLA, said the committee would finalise its report after the next hearing on July 15 whether Amarinder appeared before it or not. He said the report would be submitted to the Vidhan Sabha for consideration.

Amarinder, who appeared before the committee, along with former local bodies minister Choudhary Jagjit Singh, said the Assembly once dissolved could not take up issues dealt with in the last session. He said his role in the 12th Vidhan Sabha could not be questioned in the current session of the House. He said this inter alia meant he was not answerable to the committee also. He said the Supreme Court had also passed a similar judgement and requested proceedings against him be dropped in this light.

The former Chief Minister also questioned the locus standi of Dhanda to hear the case, saying Dhanda was holding charge of the Local Bodies Department as parliamentary secretary. He said two cases regarding the land deal were already in the high court and the committee could not adjudicate on a matter, which was sub judice. However, Dhanda rejected the contentions saying there were at least four precedents whereby ministers concerned had headed special committees formed to probe matters regarding their departments.

Two Congress legislators Randeep Singh and Sher Singh Gagowal, who were part of the special committee, gave dissenting note on the occasion. Besides Dhanda, Jagbir Singh Brar and Sarabjit Singh Makkar from the SAD and Anil Joshi from the BJP were the other members out of the nine- member committee that attended today’s proceedings. The committee was formed last year by the SAD-BJP government to enquire how 32.10 acres were first included and then excluded from an Improvement Trust scheme during the previous Congress regime causing loss to the state exchequer.

Courtesy: Tribune News Service