Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 5: One time close associate of Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh, a stone crusher owner and former Sarpanch from Chhan Arorian in district Kathua, Sanjeev Gupta alias Kaka, has threatened to sit on hunger strike in front of Minister’s house along with his family.
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Addressing a press conference here today, NPP president Balwant Singh Mankotia alleged that due to political rivalry, Forest Minister was allegedly victimizing Sanjeev Gupta. He alleged that on behest of Minister the PDD snapped the power supply of the stone crusher of Gupta and then State Pollution Controlled Board also cancelled the NOC of the unit resulting its closure. He said the stone crusher owner went to the PDD office and also many times to the PCB Chairman, Member Secretary Sameer Bharti and Regional Director Showkat Choudhary but they told him that he should go to the Forest Minister.
Mankotia said this stone crusher owner moved from pillar to post and even moved to the High Court and brought directions from there but the SPCB officials did not bother about the High Court orders. He again moved to the HC recently even then the officers at the helm of affairs did not buzz at all. Having failed from all the fronts he has now come here to project his case before the media and expose the minister and his officials.
Sanjeev Gupta alleged that earlier when he was Sarpanch he used to work with Ch Lal Singh, after change of guard he dissociated himself from that party and helped another his friend Devinder Singh Bindu and this became the reason of the political rivalry. To settle his scores, he was using Govt officers to harass him and has closed down his stone crushers since 2016 while at least 5-6 stone crushers on the name of his close relatives/ family members are functional in district Kathua.
The NPP leader said that his party will provide fully support to Sanjeev Gupta because he was fighting for justice. He said that being citizen, he has constitutional right to run his business while the fact is that many stone crushers and brick kilns are operating illegally in the State and many are not paying royalty to G&M Deptt and even power bills to the PDD. He said that NPP will also expose such cases shortly.
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