Amarinder wants taxmen to probe assets of Badal family

A day after Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said political leaders should not indulge in personal vendetta, Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh on Monday demanded that the income tax department probe the "huge disproportionate assets" of the Badal family.

Alleging that the assets of the Badal family "run into thousands of crores of rupees", Amarinder Singh wondered why income tax authorities were not taking notice of those.

"The Badal family has so many hotels worth Rs.1,000 crore each, while another is coming up near Chandigarh," he said.

Amarinder Singh questioned as to who had paid cash compensation of nearly Rs.60 lakh to families of two people killed in incidents linked to buses owned by transport companies of the Badal family.

"We want to know whose money was it? If it is government money, why is it being paid for the faults of the Badals' drivers and if it is the Badals' money, why is the income tax department not taking any note of it? From where does this money come and where is it accounted for?" he asked.

He said the Badals had a "fleet of hundreds of luxury buses with each bus costing more than a crore of rupees".

"Besides, the Badals have thousands of acres of land across the country and abroad," he alleged.

"I am surprised as how Parkash Singh Badal could make such a fortune with just 80 acres of land he inherited from his father 60 years ago.

"How come no other farmer has got so rich as Mr. Badal," Amarinder Singh remarked, adding that the land holdings of farmers in Punjab were getting smaller over the years.