Punjab Power and Irrigation Minister Rana Gurjit Singh has submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday. The minister is facing allegations of getting sand mine contracts worth crores of rupees in the name of his staff members.
The chief minister and the Punjab Congress has not yet decided if they will accept the resignation. Citing sources, the daily said that Amarinder Singh will meet top Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, over the next two days.
“Yes, I have resigned. Now, it is up to the Chief Minister and the party high command to take further action,” Rana Gurjit Singh said. “In fact, I had resigned earlier also when my name was dragged into the sand mine auction controversy.”
On January 5, the Enforcement Directorate had issued summons to the minister’s son Rana Inder Partap Singh for raising funds worth Rs 100 crore abroad by floating foreign shares for the family-owned firm Rana Sugars, reportedly without the Reserve Bank of India’s permission.
In May 2017, Rana Gurjit Singh’s Nepalese cook Amit Bahadur had reportedly won a sand mine bid worth Rs 26.51 crores at a village in Nawanshahar. A contractor accused of a multi-crore scam in the irrigation department had partly funded the sand mine auction bid of Rajbir Enterprises, where Bahadur was a working partner. Another close associate had also reportedly bagged some mine contracts.
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