Infra Board fund scam that never was

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 24

The much hyped Rs 6,700-crore fund misuse scam in the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board (PIDB) turned out to be a damp squib.

While the Congress leaders, even after the party stormed to power, had raised a lot of hue and cry over the misuse of the loan of Rs 6,700 crore sanctioned to the PIDB by the government for the previous SAD-BJP government’s Urban Rural Mission, it now turns out that a loan of Rs 3,134 crore was raised by the board. Of this, Rs 190 crore has been returned to the banks.

The Congress, on coming to power, had ordered an audit of quality of all development works carried out under the Urban Rural Mission, and asked the PIDB to recall all unspent funds with various implementing departments, besides stopping payments for all ongoing works. Almost two months later, only Rs 20 crore has been received from various departments.

Official sources say it was only because of a plethora of checks and balances introduced in the system of fund disbursal by two IAS officers, who remained Managing Directors of the PIDB during the conception and implementation of the project, that the funds were disbursed only after the works had been completed.

Though these officers had drawn the ire of the then powers that be and were transferred for failing to do the “bidding” of the previous government, they ensured that the system of payment release was put in place.

The government is now relying on the audit of the quality of works conducted in all constituencies of Punjab with these funds. The report on the funds received is reportedly with the Executive Committee of the PIDB, which will report the same to the Chief Secretary. A final decision on re-starting works under the Urban Rural Mission will now be taken by the committee on a case-to-case basis, said a top government functionary.