Amritsar, August 20 – Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader Bikram Singh Majithia today demanded a high level inquiry into the working of the liquor mafia in Punjab, saying the same mafia which was being probed in Delhi by the CBI had taken over the liquor business in the State.

In a statement issued here today he said “the AAP government of Punjab is looting the exchequer of the State to contest elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat”. He said the excise policy of Punjab, which encouraged monopoly of the liquor business in the hands of few people, was a copy of the Delhi excise policy. “Now when corruption in the liquor policy is being investigated in Delhi, the same must be done in Punjab also”, he added. He also expressed shock at the manner in which the health sector had become totally paralyzed due to the undue interference and even insult and harassment of doctors at the hands of the State health minister as well as AAP legislators. “The irony is that the AAP government is not releasing funds to the Baba Farid University as well as government hospitals even as AAP legislators pick up quarrels with health specialists”. He said a wrong message had been sent to State doctors by the insult meted out to former vice chancellor and eminent surgeon Dr Raj Bahadur and it was high time the government started releasing funds to government hospitals instead of frittering away resources in refurbishing Sewa Kendras and renaming them as Mohalla Clinics.