Sukhbir Badal serves legal notice to Punjab CM, asks him to apologise

Chandigarh, March 15 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday served a legal notice to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, asking him to issue a formal apology to him for "levelling false and malicious allegations" vis-a-vis bending of rules to facilitate construction of a private resort as well as grant of Rs 108 crore tax exemptions to the resort by the previous SAD-BJP government. 

Asserting that he would not let Mann "shoot and scoot", the SAD President said that "now the Chief Minister will be held accountable for every utterance made by him. He will have to substantiate each and every allegation made by him or be ready to go behind bars".

Making it clear that he would file a criminal defamation suit against Bhagwant Mann in case he did not apologise for his statements on the Sukh Vilas resort within seven days, he said: "The Chief Minister is already evading an appearance in the Sri Muktsar Sahib court concerning my willful defamation as well as that of my family and the SAD during an event organised in Ludhiana".

The legal notice, issued by senior advocate Himanshu Raj, asserts the Chief Minister falsely accused the SAD President of tweaking rules during the SAD-BJP government to facilitate the construction of a private resort.

It said the truth was that the power to grant the change of land use (CLU) for land falling under PLPA was with the Central government and the Punjab government had nothing to do with it.

It said Metro Eco Green Resort Ltd purchased 20.80 acres of land and transferred it to the state Forest Department along with compensatory allowance and the net present value as per rates fixed by the Supreme Court.

It said only after the compliance report in this connection was submitted that the Union government approved the setting-up of the project.

The notice also sought to debunk the Chief Minister’s allegations that the SAD-BJP government brought in an eco-tourism policy along with tax incentives solely to facilitate the construction of Sukh Vilas and that it was scrapped once the resort was completed.

It submitted that besides the eco-tourism, the Siswan project of the state government, the Gaj Retreat, and King Nirwana Resorts in Hoshiarpur had also taken advantage of this policy.

It said the eco-tourism policy of 2009 was still in existence and as per the official website of the state government, eight hotels and 56 industries had taken advantage of the policy in Mohali and 600 other projects in the state had benefitted from the policy.

The notice also submitted that the incentives for eco-tourism and other projects had increased under the new Industrial and Business Development Policy formulated by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in 2022.

It said the SGST exemption had increased from 75 per cent for 10 years to 100 per cent for 15 years. It said likewise the electricity duty exemption had been increased from 100 per cent for 10 years to 100 per cent for 15 years.

The legal notice also debunked the Chief Minister’s allegation that the road connecting the main hotel to tents was constructed by using state government funds and gave details of a cheque of Rs 66.5 lakh paid to the Punjab Mandi Board for it by Metro Eco Greens.

About CM Mann’s claim that SGST, electricity duty, luxury tax and annual license fee exemptions to the tune of Rs 108 crore had been given to Sukh Vilas, the notice said the total incentives to the resort under the eco-tourism policy to date were Rs 4.29 crore. It said the total electricity duty exemptions were Rs 2.19 crore while Rs 73.90 lakh exemption had been given vis-a-vis luxury tax and licence fee.

--IANS

vg/vd