Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has sacked health minister Dr Vijay Singla from the state cabinet over corruption charges. “He was demanding a 1 per cent commission from officials for contracts,” the chief minister’s office said, adding that “concrete evidence was found against him”.
In a video statement, Mann said: “AAP is an honest party. Our government can’t tolerate corruption of even Re 1. I have seen this hope in the eyes of people – during my visits across the state – that they were waiting for somebody to take them out of swamps of corruption. When the CM face had to be announced for Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal had made his anti-corruption goal clear to me.”
“I had promised him that we will duly work towards this. Recently, the corruption case against the minister came to my notice. The media did not know about it… I could have brushed it under the carpet. If I would have done that, I would have betrayed lakhs who had trusted us. So I am taking strict action against the minister,” Mann said.
आम आदमी पार्टी का जन्म ईमानदार सिस्टम कायम करने के लिए हुआ है…@ArvindKejriwal जी ने हमेशा कहा है कि भ्रष्टाचार को बर्दाश्त नहीं करेंगे चाहे कोई अपना हो या बेगाना
स्वास्थ्य मंत्री के खिलाफ भ्रष्टाचार के सबूत मिलते ही तुरंत बर्खास्त किया…साथ ही FIR के आदेश दिए pic.twitter.com/VBTPeWqUSR— Bhagwant Mann (@BhagwantMann) May 24, 2022
Vijay Singla has admitted the corruption charges against him, the chief minister said. This is the second time that the AAP has taken such an action, he underlined. “In 2015, Arvind Kejriwal had sacked his food supplies minister. He even gave the case to the CBI.”
Moments after the decision was announced, AAP MP Raghav Chadha tweeted: “Aam Aadmi Party is the only party that has the integrity, courage & uprightness to take action against their own on grounds of corruption. We saw it in Delhi, now we are witnessing it in Punjab. ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CORRUPTION. Commendable decision by CM . (sic).”