Probe into illegal regularisation, recruitment of employees in ZPs, panchayat samitis
Financial commissioner of the rural development and panchayat department (FCR) Rahul Bhandari on Wednesday formed a panel to verify the records of such employees
The Punjab rural development and panchayat department has launched a probe into illegal regularisation or recruitment of employees in the zila parishads and panchayat samitis.
Financial commissioner of the rural development and panchayat department (FCR) Rahul Bhandari on Wednesday formed a panel to verify the records of such employees.
The six-member panel has special secretary Tej Pratap Singh Phoolka as its head, while under secretary Baljinder Kaur, joint director Sanjiv Garg, DCFA Dinesh Kumar, superintendent Randhir Singh and law assistant Jaswinder Singh are the members.
Bhandari directed the panel to submit its report to him within three weeks.
It is learnt that the panel will also recommend necessary action against officials involved in the recruitment process without any approval for concealing facts while sending their reports to the department.
He further directed that the committee will give suggestions whether to retain such regular or recruited employees in the regular service or sack them by giving a notice.
More than 30 employees were illegally regularised in Doaba and Majha districts.
It is learnt that a report has been compiled by the collector, panchayat, land-cum-divisional deputy director of Jalandhar division Jagvinderjit Singh Sandhu that more than 30 employees have been illegally regularised in the Majha and Doaba region of the state.
A complaint was filed by one Anil Malhotra of Phagwara at the deputy director office in Jalandhar. The report has put the role of as many as 14 senior officials, including the BDPOs in Jalandhar division under the scanner. Sandhu submitted his report to FCR Rahul Bhandari in March this year.
The report mentioned that the modus operandi was the same in all cases of illegal recruitment. Employees were recruited on a temporary basis on contract by the panchayat samiti. Then they sought approval from director, rural development and panchayat department, for the regularisation of employees following a superintendent grade-1 (R.D.E-5) branch issued letter that according to the rules of Punjab Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad Act, 1965, the samiti has the power for such recruitment under Section 4 of the Punjab Panchayat Samiti or Zila Parishad Act.
The panchayat then passed a resolution to regularise employees recruited on a contractual basis.
The report underlined that Paramjit Kaur, who holds additional charge of the BDPO at Qadian block in Gurdaspur district, allegedly regularised nine such employees.
The report said that Harmesh Kaur, chairperson of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar Zila Parishad, illegally appointed Dharminder Singh as a driver in 2020 despite having no authority to appoint any employee in the zila parishad.
Rahul Bhandari over the phone said, “We will take stern action against department officials involved in the illegal regularisation.”