Resign or shut down businesses, Amarinder tells Badal

Congress leader Amarinder Singh on Sunday demanded that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should either resign from his post or shut down his family's transport and other businesses, including the controversial Orbit Aviation, as it was a clear case of conflict of interest.

"All these years, in a clear case of conflict of interest, you have brutally abused your position and power and multiplied your fleet of buses from 40 to 250 by threatening and bullying not only other private transporters, but also the PRTC (Punjab Road Transport Corporation) and Punjab Roadways, into submission, which has eventually led to everybody, except you, suffering huge losses while you are making huge profits," Amarinder Singh, the deputy party leader in the Lok Sabha, said in a statement issued here.

Amarinder Singh said that when he became Punjab chief minister in 2002, he was on the board of directors of some companies like Ranbaxy, DLF, Industrial Cables and Mount Shivalik Breweries, and steeped down.

"I resigned from all the companies after seeking legal opinion from the Punjab advocate general, who told me that this amounted to conflict of interest since all these companies were based in and operating from Punjab," he noted.

He alleged that the Badals had grabbed about 250 route permits but were actually plying about 500 buses on all the profit-making routes.

"No government official or police can dare to stop these buses as your conductors and drivers misbehave with officials and get away with it. The Moga incident is the outcome of the same immunity from law you have provided to your erring and bullying drivers and conductors," Amarinder claimed, adding that Punjab Police and administration were being misused to promote business interests of the Badal family.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and senior lawyer H.S.Phoolka said on Sunday that he has written to President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking action against the Punjab government for complete breakdown of law and order and official machinery.

He said that the entire administration in Punjab was working to shield the Badal family and their business interests.