Book chief secy or ministers if corruption allegations are true: Badal

The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday sought registration of cases against the Punjab chief secretary if he was allegedly involved in corruption or ministers if they are involved in "illegal deals" in liquor business.

The comments come a day after two cabinet ministers -- Manpreet Badal and Charanjit Singh Channi -- had said they would not participate in any meeting attended by Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh following a showdown between the ministers and the top bureaucrat last week.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked the state ministers to come clean and stop making a "laughing stock" of themselves by refusing to sit with the official.

"If a minister or ministers genuinely believe that the chief secretary has indulged in corrupt malpractices, then the only option before them is to register an FIR on corruption charges against him," Badal said.

"Conversely, if the minister or ministers are guilty of some filthy deeds which the chief secretary is opposing, then the ministers, too, deserve to be booked on corruption charges and be tried in a court of law," he said.

During a meeting on Saturday, Channi apparently opposed any relief for liquor shop owners in the excise policy under discussion. The chief secretary allegedly made some "curt remarks" after Channi spoke, following which the latter and Manpreet Badal had walked out of meeting.

After this incident, Congress legislator Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had alleged that the chief secretary's son had an undeclared business interest in a distillery.

SAD leader Badal said the people of the state must know the real issue behind the "head-on collision" between the chief secretary, ministers and the Congress leaders.

The former deputy chief minister said the ministers' conduct had turned Punjab into a "headless state" and there was a complete "administrative paralysis".

"What kind of a government do we have in which even the chief minister's power and prerogative to choose his officers is being challenged openly by his ministers and even by the state unit party chief?" he asked.