Sources in the government said the report was an unsigned document that was handed over to the Chief Minister. (ANI)
Punjab Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s report on sand mining policy is likely to be taken as his individual input to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and not as the report of the Cabinet sub-committee constituted by the CM.
Sources in the government said the report was an unsigned document that was handed over to the Chief Minister. As a rule, when a sub-committee submits its report, it has to be signed by all its members. But in this case, other members have stated that they were not a part of the report. The rest of the ministers would be asked to submit their own reports, said sources close to the CM, adding that Amarinder was likely to consider Sidhu’s report as his individual input .
Sidhu had handed over the report, suggesting setting up of a government-run corporation to sell sand at Rs 1,000 per trolley weighing 4 tonnes, to the Chief Minister on Monday. On Tuesday, Rural Development and Urban Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, also a member of the sub-committee, stated that he was not aware of the report.
When Amarinder constituted the sub-committee in March, Sidhu was nominated as its chairman, Bajwa and Finance Minister Manpreet Badal were the two members. Later, when Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria took over as mining minister, he was taken on board as a special invitee.
Sarkaria too told The Indian Express on Wednesday that he was not aware of the report. “The report has not come to me. I will comment on it when I see it.”
Bajwa said: “I did not know Sidhu was going to submit it. I got a call from him on Monday morning that he was calling a meeting of sub-committee to finalise the report that day. I was away to Gurdaspur that day. Sarkaria too was not in the city and Badal had gone to Andhra Pradesh. None of us were available on Monday. I am not even aware that the report has been submitted.”
The sub-committee had met once in April. Subsequently, Sidhu had visited Telangana with officials of mining department to study the policy there. None of the other sub-committee members had accompanied him. Later, Sidhu made another visit to Mukerian in Punjab without the other members. Bajwa had then stated he was not notified. Badal had stated that he had no problems to accept Sidhu’s lead given his passion for the issue.