CHANDIGARH:  The Punjab Information and Public Relations . Bikram Singh Majithia said here Monday that the former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh was clearly 'talking with his sanity hanging in mid-air' while indulging in a  fresh bout of allegations about the Badals buying a  24 crore plane.

Reacting to the allegations by former CM, he said "We have not one but four planes, three of these since 1970. But these all belong to companies of which my father  Satyajit Singh Majithia and my brother Gurmehar Singh are the directors. We have been in aviation business for nearly 40 years now and Amarinder knows it because he has several times flown in our planes as a passenger," said  Majithia in a strongly worded response to what he described as  "a resumption of Amarinder's desperate resort to shooting arrows in the dark."

"He wants the people to believe that a full fledged passenger aircraft is a toy plane that can be bought in a fun market with black money. And he thinks that one can inscribe one's name on an aircraft like one does on a tractor trolley. This only speaks of the level of self-deception to which his political desperation and complete isolation had driven him," said the minister.

It may be recalled that Captain Amarinder Singh had given the inscription of the letters PSB on the plane as proof that it belonged to Mr. Parkash Singh Badal. The initials in fact refer to an aviation code given by the DGCA.

Regarding the purchase of a new plane allegedly by  Sukhbir Singh Badal, Majithia said that the said plane had been bought by the Orbit Aviation Private limited which is promoted by my father and brother and  which is an off-shoot of the Saraya Aviation Company. The plane was purchased by taking  a valid term loan amounting to Rs. 19 crore 25 lakhs from the Punjab National Bank, New Delhi.The Orbit Resorts has also subscribed share application in it.  

These are companies duly recognized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, and have valid certification for engaging in non-scheduled air transport service. The Ministry of Home Affairs, government of India have also approved these. In fact, the Saraya Aviation also has been approved by the Directorate  General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) as a maintenance company which provides maintenance service to various aviation companies.
 
Majithia said that unlike Amarinder, the Majithias and the Badals were dutiful, tax-paying citizens of  this country and all their assets, liabilities a²nd sources of income are listed in their valid income tax returns. "Maharaja Amarinder Singh had declared his total annual income for the year ending 31.3.2006 as just Rs. Five lakhs 29,000, which comes to less than Rs. 50,000 per month. The source of this income was declared to be selling milk. Moving in a fleet of Mercedes and other expensive cars, he wants the Punjabis to believe this to be true. But this poor dairyman stays in hotels costing more than Rs. 1 lakh 50,000 per night, not to count the other activities of leisure and pleasure that Amarinder is famous for and proud of. Can this money cover the expenses of the maintenance of his palaces and the salaries of hundreds of servants. This is the man to level allegations against a family against whom he could not prove a single²² penny's worth of ill-gotten money, " said  Majithia.