Chandigarh, March 25: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has expressed shock over the way Mafia ‘raj’ was gaining ground in the state, with the mighty mafia lords calling the shots while those at the helms of affairs turning a blind eye to the perpetuation of the trade run in connivance of the government. The illegal trade has given rise to the incidents of crime.
Party’s Punjab unit chief and Member of Parliament (MP) from Sangrur, Bhagwant Mann, in a statement said the subsequent governments in the state were responsible for promoting land mafia, sand mafia, liquor mafia, transport mafia and drug mafia which was running the show under their protective patronage.
Mann said these mafias had grown so powerful that they do not even desist from taking law in their hands. Referring to a news report published in leading English daily, Mann said that the killing of a 20-year-old boy in Fazilka district, allegedly by the sand mafia operators was indeed distressing, which only reflected the government’s helplessness to take on the powerful mining mafia calling the shots in the state.
Recalling a similar incident that had occurred in Moga district that had unleashed a reign of terror in the area, Mann said this was a well thought-out design of the sand lords to browbeat and silence those who dared to raise voice against their illegal trade going unchecked under the nose of the dispensation, he said. This also exposed the laid back attitude of the government to address the issue once and for all.
Mann said that the government in the saddle should take on the mafia ‘raj’, especially the sand mafia with iron hand, by initiating stringent action against those found on the wrong side of the fence. He said if the government failed to take suitable action against the perpetuation of the trade, AAP would be forced to take it the sleepy dispensation to task.
