Rural funds Rs.1.62 Crore embezzled 2 BDPOs 3 others indicted
Shaurya Sharma
Fatehgarh Sahib.February.10, 2019 :
The district administration has detected an embezzlement of panchyat funds approximately worth Rs.1.62 Crore in the native village of former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh now Taksali Akali leader allegedly siphoned by the former Sarpanch of the village in connivance with the then two Block Development Panchyat Officers (BDPOs) of Khera block in the district and two Panchyat Secretaries still working in Khera block. Interestingly one of the BDPO has cleared PCS and now working as Excise and Taxation Officer.
Addressing the media persons Jagwinderjit Singh Sandhu Additional Deputy Commissioner ( ADC Development) said that he got a complaint that Navreet Singh former Sarpanch of village Kotla Bhai Ka in connivance with the then BDPOs and panchyat secretaries have siphoned the panchyat funds worth crores of rupees as the panchyat got the Award money worth Rs.3.72 Crore from Railway in lieu of panchyat land acquired by Railway.
He said that Deputy Commissioner Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon directed to conduct and enquiry and he marked detailed enquiry to XEN Panchyati Raj PWD Fatehgarh Sahib and present BDPO Khera and now in their report they found that the panchyat funds worth Rs.1.61,37,482/- have been embezzled in connivance with each other.
ADC(D) in a notice issued to Navreet Singh former Sarpanch of village Kotla Bhai Ka, the then BDPO Baljinder Singh Grewal now posted as BDPO Dera Bassi and Jasbir Singh Minhas now working as ETO and two panchyat secretaries Rajinder Kumar and Bahadur Singh have alleged that they withdrew the Railway award money from the bank accounts of the panchyat inspite of the fact that clear instructions from FCR( Rural Development & Panchyat) that railway award money should be converted into FDRs and not to be withdrawn the development and welfare works should be under taken from its interest. Secondly they withdrew the money though the bank account of panchyat was seized. However the Sarpanch and Officials withdraw the amount in an unauthorised manner and pocketed the money. He said enquiry found that bogus bills worth Rs.1,61,378,482/- were detected. In the notice he has mentioned that the officials and former Sarpanch are informed that if they want to file any reply in this regard and scrutinise the record they can contact his office within 15 days and after that legal action will be initiated.
ADC(D) said that this scam is tip of iceberg and now more complaints have started pouring how the Govt. funds have been embezzled. He said that every corrupt will be exposed and booked.