Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Sunday blamed the Congress-led Punjab Government of deliberately delaying inquiries into the most heinous cases of criminal neglect by denying justice to the victims of last year’s Amritsar Dussehra tragedy as well as this month’s Batala firecracker factory blast.
“CBI inquiry should be held to pinpoint Congress leaders and officials responsible for acts of negligence which led to the gruesome tragedies. The inquiry should investigate why the inquiries ordered by the Congress Government are delayed and kept away from the public and should take action against guilty Congress leaders and government officials,” said the SAD leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia.
“FIRs should be registered against all the guilty leaders and officials and they should be awarded exemplary punishment,” he said.
Stating that treating the loss of human lives and failure to fix accountability for the same was not tolerable in any democracy, Majithia said that the truth was being suppressed and Congress leaders and workers responsible for criminal negligence were being sheltered. “Such a callous attitude towards giving justice to the common man has put the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s credibility on the line, especially since he had ordered time-bound inquiries into the cases,” he added.
Majithia said that in Amritsar Dussehra tragedy, the Chief Minister had announced that the probe report would be made public within four weeks. “It is nearly one year and the victim families have now announced to come on the roads as the probe report has not been released till now,” he said adding that the Congress councillor Mithu Madaan and the Sidhu couple of Navjot Sidhu and Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu were directly responsible for the death of 59 persons who were mowed down by a speeding train when effigies were being burnt near the railway track at Joda Phatak in Amritsar.
“In another shocking incident, Gurdaspur ADC (General), who was given the responsibility of probing the September 4 blast in a firecracker factory operating in a residential area in Batala, had proceeded on ex-India leave without submitting the inquiry report,” he said.
Majithia pointed that even in this case, in which 23 people lost their lives, the Chief Minister had made an announcement that the probe report would be completed in four weeks. “Now the district administration is stating that it will take months. Obviously, it is a crude attempt to shelter the accused Congressmen as well as government officials who let a firecracker factory operate in a residential area since 2017,” he said.
Majithia demanded that inquiry reports with regard to all 10 cases of negligence, including the burning of 50 shops at Anandpur Sahib, hosiery, garment factory and road fires in Ludhiana, blasts in Amritsar and Tarn Taran and cracker factory blast in 2017 be placed in public domain immediately.
“If this is not done, the SAD will launch a campaign along with victim families to ensure justice is done to them and they get promised government jobs and compensation,” he added.
