Chandigarh – Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today served a legal notice to chief minister Bhagwant Mann to issue a formal apology to him for leveling 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 erstwhile SAD-BJP government.
Asserting that he would not let Bhagwant Mann shoot and scoot, the SAD president 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 chief minister in case he did not apologize for his utterances vis a vis Sukh Vilas resort within seven days, Mr Sukhbir Badal 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 organized in Ludhiana”.
The legal notice, which was issued on behalf of 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 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 acrs 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.
The notice also debunked the chief minister’s wild allegation that the erstwhile SAD-BJP government brought in an eco-tourism policy along with tax incentives solely to facilitate the construction of Sukh Vilas and that the same was scrapped once the resort was completed. The notice submitted that besides the Eco Tourism, Siswan project of the Punjab 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 that 600 other projects had benefitted from the policy in the State.
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 SGST exemption had increased from 75 per cent for ten years to 100 per cent for 15 years. It said likewise the electricity duty exemption had been increased from 100 per cent for ten years to 100 percent 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 the same by Metro Eco Greens.
Speaking about Mr Bhagwant 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 till 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 license fee.