Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Batala, August 28
Congress politicians were left red-faced after Shiva Sareen, son of the newly appointed chairman of Batala Improvement Trust (IT) Pawan Kumar Pamma, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Jalandhar today for his involvement in a Rs 90 crore GST fraud.
The development has upset political dynamics of the Assembly seat as Pawan Pamma is known to be a long-time loyalist of Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa. His appointment as the chairman was made a few days ago on the recommendations of Bajwa. The MP was to be the chief guest at his installation ceremony which was slated to be held on August 31. Elaborate arrangements were being made by Pamma and his loyalists for the event.
Three powerful Congress politicians, including Partap Bajwa, are eying this Assembly seat. The two others are Cabinet Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and three time ex-MLA Ashwani Sekhri. Tript is the sitting MLA from the neighbouring seat of Fatehgarh Churian. He controlled all the administrative and police affairs of the area till the spat between Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu spilled out in the open. Tript is a Sidhu supporter.
Today’s arrest of Shiva means the appointment of his father now hangs by a thread. Sources say in an election year, the PPCC chief and the CM would not like to have “the father of a tainted son” as the IT chief.
As news of Shiva’s arrest reached the city, deliberations among leaders started on the name of the next chairman. The IT chairmanship is considered to be a plum posting as Batala is the sixth biggest city of Punjab. Sources say Bajwa will try hard to get Pamma’s appointment through but there are several others who want a new chief to take over. Bajwa’s detractors have already started piling pressure on state leaders to ensure a new man is appointed. The MP had displayed his political prowess recently by making Pamma the chairman despite the fact that there were still days to go before the term of incumbent chief Kasturi Lal Seth was slated to end. Bajwa had also appointed another supporter Gurinder Singh Chikoo as the chairman of the Batala Market Committee. Sources say he had proved that he was a force to reckon in the area by appointing two of his loyalists on plum posts.
Batala Improvement Trust chief’s son held for Rs 90 crore GST fraud
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