Punjab: Had no role in drafting of policy, says Bharat Bhushan Ashu in his bail plea

LUDHIANA: In his bail plea filed in Punjab and Haryana high court, former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who had been arrested in alleged foodgrain transportation tender scam, has pleaded that his role was simply that of post office and he had nothing to do with the drafting of policy.
In his plea filed through advocate Bipan Ghai, Ashu said the present case is nothing, but abuse of process of law, where the only motive of the vigilance bureau working under Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is to publicly humiliate the petitioner who was a cabinet minister at the time when the Congress was in power in Punjab.
It added that perusal of the entire FIR, it can be said that there are two set of allegations which are being levelled against the accused persons, including the petitioners. First allegation is that "clause 5-C of the Punjab Foodgrains Labour and Cartage Policy 2020-2021 was changed to benefit some of the contractors" and second is "the officials/officers did not verify properly the numbers of vehicles which had been issued gate passes and in this way they have helped certain contractors by not cancelling the technical bids of those contractors."
The petitioner pleaded that after considering various suggestions, due deliberations and meetings, the committee consisting of higher officers framed policy 2018-2019 wherein first time capping of schedule of rates was introduced. He pleaded that the purpose of capping was to pay the amount to the extent central government was paying to the state and thus the loss of crores of rupees being suffered by the state was saved by introducing the provision of capping.
"Whereas in the previous policies, there was no such provision of capping and the schedule of rates were extended up to 300/400% which caused loss of about Rs 31,000 crore to Punjab as the central government was only to pay up to 120% of the schedule of rates", the petition read.
"That in the policy 2018-2019, the tender committee was constituted consisting of deputy commissioner of the district concerned as president, deputy controller (finance and accounts) of district concerned as a member and the head of all the purchase agencies including district head of FCI as member, district food and supply controller as convener. Thus, it is clear that the petitioner had no role in the formation of tender committee or allotment of tenders."
The petitioner pleaded that he had nothing to do with the drafting of the policy and the drafted policy after being approved by the finance department was only sent through him for approval by the cabinet. It added that therefore the allegations being put forth that the petitioner had deliberately changed the policies has no legs to stand.
The petitioner in the petition pleaded that he was a cabinet minister and was not responsible for the implementation of the policy and the said policy was implemented at the district level.