Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab co-in-charge Raghav Chadha on Saturday alleged sand mafia is operating under the protection of Charanjit Singh Channi in Chamkaur Sahib, the Assembly constituency of Chief Minister.

Speaking to reporters, Chadha said, “After becoming the CM, Channi had said ‘sand mafia should not come to me, I am not the chief minister of sand mafia’. But as soon as he became the CM, he went back on his promise. He joined hands with the sand mafia. Under the protection of CM, now the sand mafia itself is running its business in his area.”

The AAP leader also accused the CM of wrongly transferring a forest officer Rajvansh Singh who had written a letter on 22 November to the concerned station house officer and Tehsildar in the area informing that this area of Jindapur village was under the ‘Forest Conservation Act’ and no illegal mining activity can be carried out in the village.

On November 23, a day after writing the letter, the Channi government ordered the transfer of that honest forest officer, he claimed.

“This proves the sand mafia is working under their protection and Channi is in association with the sand mafia. About 800 to 1,000 trucks of sand are illegally supplied daily from here. The forest officer had said in his letter that this land belongs to the forest department and mining cannot take place here, but the mafia did illegal mining and also destroyed the plants planted by the forest department and the administration kept sleeping,” Chadha alleged.

“Channi should tell everyone for how long illegal mining is going on here? How much of its share reaches his pockets? How many such mafia sites are there in Chamkaur Sahib and all over Punjab? And what is their nexus with the mafia?” he asked.

The AAP leader said Channi claims sand is being sold at Rs Five per feet but the truth is due to the sand mafia people have to buy sand at the rate of Rs 25 to 40 per foot.

He said there is a sand mafia business in Punjab worth about Rs 20,000 Crore. “After eliminating these sand mafia, the AAP government will give an allowance of Rs 1,000 to the women of Punjab, and with the same money AAP will provide free world-class education and medical services to the people”, he added.