Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday arrived on a day-long visit to poll-bound Punjab. Speaking to reporters after arriving in Amritsar, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor fired a fresh salvo at his Punjab counterpart Charanjit Singh Channi, whom the AAP has accused of ‘patronising’ the sand mafia.
“I’ve been seeing for the past few days that illegal sand mining has been taking place in Punjab CM’s constituency Chamkaur Sahib. If it’s happening in his own constituency, it’s difficult to think he doesn’t know about it,” news agency quoted Kejriwal as saying.
The AAP leader further sought to know if Channi is the ‘owner’ of illegal sand mining. “Serious allegations of sand theft are against him. Punjab wants to know if he has a partnership or provides protection to others. Truth should come out. We’ll end this when the AAP comes to power. It should be probed and FIR be registered,” he said.
The Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Delhi, has, in recent days, targeted the Punjab CM over what it says is illegal sand mining in his own assembly constituency. Last Saturday, Raghav Chadha, the party’s co-incharge for the border state, visited Jindapur in Chamkaur Sahib, and ‘exposed’ sand mining taking place illegally in the village.
Though Channi, who is from the ruling Congress, has dismissed the AAP’s allegations as a ‘bundle of lies,’ that has failed to deter the Kejriwal-led party. In an apparent dig at the Congress leader, the Delhi CM, on Monday, described him as a ‘Sand Thief.’