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Punjab food department dismisses official who concealed Canadian PR
Disclosing this here Saturday, the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said the abovesaid official violated the Punjab Civil Services Rules, 1970 by hiding the fact that he had acquired the Permanent Residency (PR) of Canada in 2006
Food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department has dismissed deputy director Rakesh Kumar Singla for wilfully concealing facts and negligence in discharge of official duty.
Disclosing this here Saturday, the food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Lal Chand Kataruchak said the abovesaid official violated the Punjab Civil Services Rules, 1970 by hiding the fact that he had acquired the Permanent Residency (PR) of Canada in 2006.
The move comes a day after a Hindustan Times had highlighted the matter.
The official was charge sheeted in 2017 and the charges were proved on January 29, 2019.
The Minister also mentioned that the abovesaid officer was provided a copy of the chargesheet but he didn’t join the probe. Hence, considering the circumstances, the said officer has been dismissed.
VB raids on for arrest of PA to former minister
The vigilance bureau conducted raids at the house of Meenu Pankaj Malhotra, personal assistant (PA) to former cabinet minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu in Jawahar Nagar Camp on Saturday in Punjab foodgrain transportation scam. Malhotra was not present at home. The vigilance questioned his father.
On Saturday, the vigilance bureau produced Telu Ram, one of the contractors, before the court, which extended his police custody by three more days. The vigilance bureau sought five days’ police remand of Telu Ram stating rest of the accused are yet to be arrested. The vigilance bureau has to recover records related to the fraud.
Bharat Bhushan Ashu is already under the scanner of vigilance bureau. The vigilance officials suspect a fraud of up to ₹2,000 crore in the scam.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP, vigilance) Ravinderpal Singh Sandhu said the raids were conducted for the arrest of Meenu Pankaj Malhotra, but he is on the run.
The vigilance bureau on August 16 registered a case against the owner, partners of Gurdas Ram and company as well as officials of state food and civil supplies department, and employees of procurement agencies for committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district.
The vigilance found that the vehicle numbers mentioned in the lists submitted by the contractors had registration numbers of scooters, motorcycles, cars and other vehicles not verified by officers of district tender committee due to criminal connivance with each other. As per policy of the department it was mandatory for the committee to reject the technical bid for the above mentioned reason but the same was not done.
