India

Bureaucrats stonewall Punjab CM’s probe into Rs 10.28 crore scam

Chandigarh: Punjab bureaucrats have stonewalled an inquiry ordered by the Bhagwant Mann government into a Rs 10.28 crore scam involving Ferozepur’s Congress ex-MLA Parminder Singh Pinki.

Acting on a complaint of Aam Aadmi Party’s Ferozepur MLA Ranbir Singh Bhullar, Punjab Chief Minister  Bhagwant Mann ordered an inquiry in August 2022 into the Rs 10.28 crore compensation awarded to farmers of 37 villages that were affected by floods in 2019. The majority of the poor farmers did not receive any financial aid.

The inquiry was part of the AAP government’s “Zero Tolerance Towards Corruption” policy.

The Financial Commissioner, Revenue KAP Sinha, on September 2, 2022, directed the then DC Ferozepur Ms Amrit Singh IAS to look into the matter and promptly send a report to the government. The DC sat on the file for about four months and in December 2022, asked the tehsildar Sukhbir Kaur to conduct an inquiry under the Zero Tolerance Towards Corruption policy.

As many as 11 ‘patwaris’ (field revenue officials) were called for questioning by the tehsildar. They told the tehsildar, “We do not have any record of the distribution of the compensation.” However, tehsildar Sukhbir Kaur relying on the annual audit report and the utilisation certificate issued by her predecessor Lakhwinder Singh sent inconclusive findings to her superiors.

When contacted by indanarrative.com, the tehsildar disclosed that the matter was now being looked into by District Revenue Officer (DRO) Arvind Verma. The DRO refused to talk to this correspondent.

The then tehsildar Lakhwinder Singh could not answer whether he distributed the compensation as per the crop damage Assessment Register (AR). Sources maintain the AR is missing from revenue records. However, no FIR has been registered regarding the missing register.

As per norms, crop damage compensation is to be directly credited to the bank accounts of the identified farmers, as mentioned in AR, through account payee cheques. The farmers are not paid in cash to check the possibility of fraud.

Very recently, on March 9, the Ferozepur Commissioner D.S. Mangat wrote a letter to the incumbent DC Rajesh Dhiman telling him that his office had not received the inquiry report to date though the CM sought a prompt response in August 2022.

Ex-MLA Pinki neither replied to questions sent to him about his reported involvement in the scam. He did not answer several calls made by this correspondent either.

Rajinder S Taggar

Guest writer

Recent Posts

Sikyong Penpa Tsering successfully concludes key engagements in US, strengthening Tibetan cause

Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the political leader of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), has successfully concluded…

47 seconds ago

World Uyghur Congress condemns Chinese sanctions against Uyghur, Tibetan organisations in Canada

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has strongly condemned the Chinese government's recent decision to impose…

35 minutes ago

ISI-backed Khalistani terrorists neutralised in Pilibhit encounter: Punjab DGP

Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav on Monday confirmed that a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh…

1 hour ago

“Essential to nurture talent of youth, responsibility lies with country’s education system”: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that to take the country forward, it is…

2 hours ago

PM Modi distributes 71,000 appointment letters to newly appointed recruits, says, “Development of country happens through its youth”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday distributed more than 71,000 appointment letters to newly appointed…

3 hours ago

“Honoured:” says Chennai-born Sriram Krishnan, Trump’s pick for Policy Advisor on AI

US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence…

4 hours ago