Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann (File)A day after the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) questioned the alleged “interference of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in the working of Chandigarh”, the Chandigarh Congress, on Friday, made serious allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), stating that the sanitation company (Lion Services) in favour of whom six of its councillors voted, were approached by the company a day before the voting was to take place in the General House. Congress also demanded a high-level enquiry about the same. The last House meeting was held on April 30.
The Congress also alleged that they don’t think AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal would take any concrete action against the six councillors who have “indulged in high level corruption along with top AAP leadership.”
In a statement issued here on Friday, Rajiv Sharma, spokesperson of the Chandigarh Congress stated that Kejriwal and other AAP leaders stated in the Municipal Corporation (MC) elections that if the elected councillors were found to be corrupt, they would be removed.
“Last week, six councillors — Jaswinder Kaur of ward 1, Suman Devi of ward 4, Poonam of ward 16, Taruna Mehta of ward 18, Prem Lata of ward 23 and Kuldeep Dhalor of ward 26 — voted along with the BJP in favour of the same company, which was accused by top AAP leaders of looting the people of Chandigarh and lowering the sanitation ranking of the city to 66. And now the same has been voted for,” said Sharma.
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He further alleged that the “Company contacted all councillors before the voting day to help them grab the contract. Obviously, the six AAP councillors could not turn down the offer. Surprisingly, the AAP leadership, who got votes of the people on the pretext of providing a clean administration has not taken any serious action against the councillors so far.”
He also alleged that the face saving “show cause notices” sent to the councillors were merely an eye wash to control damage and the silence of top AAP leadership on this issue shows that they could also be a part of the corrupt deal.
Sharma further added that this incident has clearly established that AAP councillors are hand in glove with the BJP in promoting corrupt entities in Chandigarh, which is nothing but betrayal of faith and trust of the people of Chandigarh. The Chandigarh Congress demanded a high level inquiry against the AAP councillors alleging to find out how much money was exchanged in the process.
AAP President Prem Garg, while refuting all allegations said, “Our councillors say they raised hands under confusion. When one councillor raised hand, others also raised, but put hands down immediately looking at Ram Chander Yadav. The Mayor did wrong in counting and Yogesh had immediately objected to it. In voting, they always ask to raise hands to see who are in favour of an agenda or not. But the mayor, in a hurry, declared the agenda passed to favour Lion Services. Everyone knows that the company has corrupted the whole system.”
Earlier, UT BJP chief Arun Sood stated that the “AAP wanted to control Chandigarh from Punjab and the CM’s interference in the Chandigarh Administration will not be tolerated”.
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