Chandigarh, Mar 15 (UNI) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday served a legal notice to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann seeking a formal apology from him for levelling "false and malicious" allegations about bending of rules to facilitate construction of a private resort by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government.
Asserting that he would not let Bhagwant Mann shoot and scoot, he said “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 the CM in case he did not apologise for his utterances with regard to 'Sukh Vilas Resort' within seven days, Badal said “the CM 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, which was issued on behalf of Senior Advocate Himanshu Raj, asserts the CM falsely accused the SAD President of tweaking rules during the SAD-BJP government to facilitate the construction of the private resort.
It said the truth was that the power to grant CLU for land falling under PLPA was with the Central Government and the Punjab Government had nothing to do with the same. It said Metro Eco Green Resort Limited purchased 20.80 acres of land and transferred the same to Punjab Forest Department along with compensatory allowance
and 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. UNI GS SSP