Vikrant Shekhawat : Jun 15, 2021, 03:10 PM
Mohali: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal was on Tuesday detained while leading a protest outside Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s farmhouse at Siswan on the outskirts of Chandigarh.The Akalis, led by Badal, are demanding the dismissal of state health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu and a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged irregularities in the sale of vaccines and procurement of medical kits for Covid-19 patients.The opposition party is also demanding that land acquisition for national highways be done at market rates and displacement compensation be offered to the affected landowners.Announcing the protest, party spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the vaccine and Fateh kit scams had shaken the conscience of Punjabis as the elected government and its members were profiting from their misery during the time of pandemic.“The Congress government has admitted its fault that it sold vaccines to private hospitals at huge margins and in turn allowed them to charge a premium. Instead of dismissing the health minister, Capt Amarinder Singh is shielding him and trying to silence the opposition by registering cases against senior Akali leaders for holding a peaceful and democratic protest to demand justice in the case,” said Cheema.Cheema said the SAD president had also exposed the Fateh kit scam under which prices of medical kits, which were to be supplied to Covid patients, were jacked up repeatedly from ₹800 to ₹1,400 per kit by inviting one tender after another even as the first one was valid for six months.Sukhbir was joined by other senior leaders of the party, including core committee members, legislators, former legislators, constituency in-charges, district presidents and youth unit office-bearers.Last week, Sukhbir and 225 other party leaders and workers were booked for violating Covid-19 norms on the CM’s orders, after they had gathered for a protest near the health minister’s house in Mohali.