Former Punjab Minister Manpreet’s ‘order to print stamp papers’ comes back to haunt him
The file pertaining to the bill of Rs 57.46 crore incurred on the printing of these stamp papers has landed up in Chief Minister’s Office. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is yet to take any call on the file.
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Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann (left), former state finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal (right). (Express Archive) Two years after Punjab government placed an order with Government of India’s press at Nasik for printing of stamp papers worth Rs 1266 crore, it has come back to haunt former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, during whose tenure it was placed.
The file pertaining to the bill of Rs 57.46 crore incurred on the printing of these stamp papers has landed up in Chief Minister’s Office. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is yet to take any call on the file. The matter has been put up to the CMO after the GOI’s press wrote to Punjab government a few days ago that the government had not taken the delivery of the order nor it had paid the bill.
The original bill incurred was Rs 37 crore. But due to non payment of the Bill, it has been compounded with interest at Rs 58 crore.
A few days ago, CM Mann had raised the issue while speaking at a function in Dhuri that Manpreet Badal had given an order for the stamp papers in 2021 even as the government had banned the printed stamp papers and switched over to e-stamping.
Badal, however, tweeted on Wednesday to say, “It was the AAP government that completely banned physical stamp papers.
It was the AAP government that completely banned physical stamp papers.
A little knowledge about the functioning of your own government would have been enlightening. Unwittingly, you are implicating your own government.@AAPPunjab @PunjabGovtIndia https://t.co/pEtMbIRVZc
— Manpreet Singh Badal (@MSBADAL) August 16, 2023
A little knowledge about the functioning of your own government would have been enlightening. Unwittingly, you are implicating your own government.” Manpreet Badal enclosed a tweet by Revenue Minister Bram Shankar Jimpa from June 1, 2022 announcing that the AAP government was switching over to e-stamp papers. Jimpa’s tweet read, “n a remarkable decision, Punjab Government has abolished physical stamp papers. Stamp paper of any denomination can now be obtained via e-stamp. Revenue Minister Bram Shanker Jimpa said “We are extending this facility to stamp papers for all denominations starting from Rs 1”.
Sources in the government said that the decision to switch over to e-stamping was first taken in 2014. But the Tehsildars started protesting against it. The previous governments had then taken a decision that stamp papers below Rs 500 value should be printed on paper and above that should be e-stamped.
Hence, the papers were partially printed and the fee was partially taken online.
It remains to be seen what decision would the CM take. He had asked Manpreet Badal while speaking in Dhuri if he would pay this bill from his kinnow orchards.
Earlier also the CM had stated that he would recover the fee of lawyer hired by the former Congress government to retain gangster turned politician Mukhtar Ansari in Punjab jail from the former ministers concerned. The government has already issued notices of recovery to former CM Amarinder Singh and former Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa.
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