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Expelled from BKU faction, Jagtar Singh Longowal alleges corruption in organisation
A day after his expulsion from Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), Jagtar Singh Longowal on Tuesday raised the issue of corruption in the organisation. Longowal was expelled on Monday for his alleged involvement in anti-organisation activities.
Sangrur: A day after his expulsion from Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta-Ugrahan), Jagtar Singh Longowal on Tuesday raised the issue of corruption in the organisation. Longowal was expelled on Monday for his alleged involvement in anti-organisation activities.
Five days ago, Longowal said he had submitted an affidavit to the state leadership alleging corruption by a state-level union leader. (A copy of the affidavit is with the HT).
In the affadavit, Longowal had alleged that a leader had taken a cut from the compensation amount given by the state government to family members of labourers who committed suicide due to debt in 2015.
Longowal on Tuesday held a gathering at Dharamshala in Longowal town to discuss his next course of action.
“I was thrown out of the organisation a few days after I submitted an affidavit along with the corruption proof to the union president Joginder Singh Ugrahan,” Longowal said.
In the affidavit, Longowal said that a labourer, Gurmail Singh, a resident of Kakrala village in Patiala, had committed suicide due to debt in 2015. “Jagtar Singh Kalajhar, campaign secretary of the union, led the protest against the state government in 2018 to get the compensation amount released. The state government released ₹3 lakh on December 18, 2018. On the same day, Kalajhar took ₹25,000 from the family as expenses for the protest,” Longowal alleged in the affidavit.
Longowal said the victim’s family approached him to raise the issue with the state leadership. “I had asked them to share proofs and affidavit with me, and when they did, I sent it to the president. However, instead of taking action against Kalajhar, I was expelled from the organisation,” Longowal said.
Kalajhar accepted that he had taken the said amount from the victim’s family as a fund and deposited it with the union.
“The victim’s family had given a fund of ₹25,000 to the union, which was submitted to the block committee of the organisation. A receipt was also been given to the victim’s family. Longowal is doing everything in his power to defame the organisation,” Kalajhar said.
Sukhdev Singh Kokri, general secretary of the union, denied that the organisation takes funds from the victim’s family.
“We do not take funds from the families of victims after helping them to get compensation from the government,” he said.
