On 24/5/2022 Punjab CM sacked Health Minister Vijay Singla for corruption. Singla was later arrested by Punjab Police. Bhagwant Mann went public about sacking.
Bhagwant Mann had advised people to have audio recording in case bribe is demanded. In this case it was done and led to the sacking of minister and arrest. It is rare for a person to begin a day as minister, be sacked and end up in jail.
AAP has spoken against corruption. It had come to power in Punjab two months back. Within this time corruption began. We do not know about other ministers and MLAs. No public knowledge of any one demanding bribe. Bhagwant Mann by going public about sacking has sent a message to all public servants under him that corruption will not be tolerated.
Superintending Engineer Rajinder Singh had filed a complaint at Mohali Station that Vijay Singla and his OSD Pardeep Kumar had demanded 1.16 crore rupees as 2% commission on 58 crore rupees of construction work. He was on deputation. He said he was unable to do it and wanted to go back to his original department. He was to retire on 30/11/2022. He was threatened his career would be ruined if he did not pay the bribe.
On 20/5/2022 Rajinder Singh was told of pay a lump sum of 10 lakh rupees and after that 1% commission in all works. Rajinder Singh offered to pay 5 lakh rupees to get rid of harassment. On 23/5/2022 he went to Civil Secretariat and asked where to pay the money. Vijay Singla told Rajinder Singh to pay to Pardeep Kumar.
Some question why Vijay Singla was appointed minister. The answer is he was not minister before. There was no allegation of corruption against him. One can guarantee about one’s past conduct. There is no guarantee about one’s future conduct. Many who have started clean have become corrupt and amassed crores of rupees.
Some may say 1% or 2% is a small amount, a little bit of corruption. It is like little bit of pregnancy. It grows. From 1% it can go up to 10%, 40%, 95% or 100%.
Corruption can come from top. Former Maharashtra Home Minister is in jail for asking Sachin Waze to collect 100 crore rupees per month.
China has death penalty for corruption. India should have death penalty for corruption especially when it leads to bankruptcy of bank and people lose their money, many of them their life’s savings.