E-Paper
₹121 crore scam unearthed in Punjab Rural Development & Panchayats dept
The report submitted to Punjab rural development and panchayat minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said that panchayats of Salempur, Sekhewal, Selkiana, Bounkar Gujran, Kadiana Khurd and Dhanansu villages of Block Ludhiana-2, received an award of ₹252.94 crore after the acquisition of hundreds of acres of land, but ₹120.87 crore were withdrawn from this amount with the alleged connivance of some officers and employees of the department along active involvement of sarpanches
Sarpanches in collusion with rural development and panchayat department officials and contractors embezzled ₹121 crore, part of the money received from the sale of panchayat land in violation of rules, an inquiry report said.
The report submitted to Punjab rural development and panchayat minister Laljit Singh Bhullar said that panchayats of Salempur, Sekhewal, Selkiana, Bounkar Gujran, Kadiana Khurd and Dhanansu villages of Block Ludhiana-2, received an award of ₹252.94 crore after the acquisition of hundreds of acres of land, but ₹120.87 crore were withdrawn from this amount with the alleged connivance of some officers and employees of the department along active involvement of sarpanches.
The minister said that when the matter came to his notice, a probe into the matter was ordered.
Investigation revealed that block development and panchayat officers (BDPOs), panchayat secretaries and sarpanches withdrew ₹120.87 crore from the fixed deposit (FD) at their own level and the amount was spent without administrative and technical approvals of the department, whereas the policy and guidelines issued by the department bound the village panchayat to deposit the award money of acquisition of its land, in the State Bank of India as fixed deposit.
“No one has any right to withdraw such FD without the approval of the government,” he said, adding that only the interest received from this FD can be spent on development works of the village after obtaining administrative and technical approval with the advice of technical officials.
The minister directed the officials to hand over the probe to the vigilance bureau and according to an official statement, the minister directed the officials to immediately chargesheet around a dozen officials of the department along with six sarpanches.
Bhullar informed that a total of 299 acres of land in Dhanansu village was acquired and the panchayat received ₹104.54 crore as award money of which ₹61.23 crore was spent without departmental approval. Sekhewal Panchayat spent ₹29.50 crore out of the total ₹64.82 crore received as award money for the acquired 81 acres of land. Similarly, village Salempur received ₹5.63 crore for 86 acres of land acquired, of which ₹1.53 crore was spent.
A total of ₹42.56 crores of award money was given for the 416 acres of land acquired in Kadiana Khurd village, of which the panchayat spent ₹3.36 crore without departmental approval, while Bounkar Gujran panchayat withdrew ₹25.25 crores out of total ₹31.63 crore received as award money.
He said that out of the total ₹3.76 crore money received by the Selkiana panchayat, the record regarding the amount spent without approval is yet to come.
The minister also directed the officials to start the process of recovering the money spent without departmental approval from the accused officials and sarpanches. He also directions have been issued for blacklisting four private banks, which did not cooperate during the investigation.
Bhullar directed the officials to immediately chargesheet BDPO Rupinderjit Kaur, Gurpreet Singh, Gurpreet Singh Mangat and Simrat Kaur, panchayat secretary Gurmail Singh (now retired), Harpal Singh Randhawa, Bagga Singh, Jashandeep Chandel, Harpal Singh Sahjomajra and Harjit Singh Malhotra and sarpanch Dhanansu Sudagar Singh, sarpanch Salempur Neha, sarpanch Sekhewal Amrik Kaur, sarpanch Bounkar Gujran Mukhtiar Singh, officiating panch Bounkar Gujran Gurcharan Singh, sarpanch Selkiana Harpreet Kaur and sarpanch Kadiana Khurd Rajinder Kaur.
