E-Paper
Punjab VB books private firm owners, govt officials for fraud in transportation of food grains
A spokesperson of the Punjab VB said that a case under u/s 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120 B of the IPC and 7, 8, 12, 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia, proprietors of Gurdas Ram & company and the government officials
: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday booked three owners of a private firm along with officials of the food and civil supplies department and procurement agencies for allegedly committing irregularities in accepting labour, cartage and transportation tenders for grain markets in Ludhiana district.
A spokesperson of the VB said that a case under u/s 420, 409, 467, 468, 471, 120 B of the IPC and 7, 8, 12, 13(2) Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered against Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia, proprietors of Gurdas Ram & company and the government officials.
Accused proprietor Telu Ram of Udhanwal village of SBS Nagar has been arrested by the VB range, Ludhiana.
The spokesperson said that during investigation by the VB, it has been found that at the time of submitting tenders for the year 2020-21 with regard to labour, cartage and transportation works in Ludhiana, the lists of vehicles submitted by the above mentioned contractors were containing registration numbers of scooters/motorcycles/cars etc, which cannot transport goods and which were not verified by concerned officers/officials of the district tender committee due to criminal connivance with each other.
He said that as per policy of the department, it was mandatory for the committee to reject the technical bid due to the above-mentioned reason but the same was not done.
The spokesperson said that the in-gate passes pertaining to loading/unloading of food grains, the registration numbers of vehicles used for the carriage have been found to be of scooters/motorcycles/cars etc.
He added that details of the registration numbers of the said vehicles as well as the quantity of the commodity mentioned in these gate passes prima facie appears to be a case of fake reporting and embezzlement of the food grains mentioned in these gate passes.
He said that on the basis of these gate passes, the department officials have made payments to Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia without verifying the same.
