Chandigarh: Claiming that once again the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has denied issuing Cash Credit Limit (CCL) for procurement of paddy due to embezzlement of food stock by Badal Government, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today demanded impartial probe monitored by the Supreme Court of India (SCI) into the multi-crore food grain scam.
In a written statement issued by AAP today, Bhagwant Mann said that AAP always alleged of a food grain scam of about Rs 20,000 crore by the Punjab Government, which is now being proved authenticated with the denial of Cash Credit Limit (CCL) by the Reserve Bank India for procurement of all important paddy procurement. AAP smells the embezzlement of food scam to the tune of more than Rs 30,000 crore now, Mann claimed.
Supreme Court should monitor probe into multi-crore food grain scam in Punjab, says AAP
“RBI has once denied the CCL for wheat procurement and instructed for the account of earlier paid amount of Rs 28,928 crore, Mann said adding that in October next paddy procurement would begin for which more than Rs 25,000 crore is needed and denial of CCL by RBI would lead an acute crises of payment to farmers, who are already under heavy debt.
Seriousness of the situation could be gauged from the fact even the NDA Government led by Prime Minister Narindra Modi has refused to intervene to enable clearance of CCL from RBI, Mann said adding that in the year 2015-16 itself the embezzlement in the CCL to the tune of Rs 925 crore came in fore and Akalis had to cough up this amount first to manage clearance of CCL from RBI.
“If in a single procurement, there is an embezzlement of more than Rs 1,000 crore, one can easily imagine the amount of scam in the last nine years during which more than 18 crops were procured in Punjab”, Mann said.
AAP would fight against the harassment of farmers by Akalis due to corruption by them, tooth and nail and would launch an intensive agitation both inside outside of Parliament, Mann vowed.
Due to faulty policies of Akalis, the fiscal health of the state has stooped so low that the public properties are being mortgaged by Badals to manage funds to pay salaries to Government employees.