25 complaints received at DC’s sangat darshan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, March 5

The Deputy Commissioner, Dr Basant Garg, conducted a sangat darshan to listen to the problems of residents of the district here today.

As many as 25 complainants were received at the sangat drashan. The DC marked the complaints to the departments and officials concerned. As many as 13 complainants had reached the sangat darshan last time and 64 complainants had reached the sangat darshan when it was held for the first time.

ADC (general) Sumit Jarangal, ADC (development) Varinder Kumar Sharma, SDM Bathinda Damanjit Singh Mann, SDM Talwandi Sabo Vinay Kumar, Assistant Commissioner (general) Sakattar Singh Bal, Assistant Commissioner (grievances) Charu Mita and officers from other departments were also present during the sangat darshan.

Corrupt sarpanch

Gurlal Singh, panch of Tarkhan Wala village from Talwandi Sabo complained against the sarpanch of the village Jagdev Singh and accused him of embezzling the funds released by the government for social welfare schemes and developmental works. He was accompanied by Gurdeep Singh and Bhupinder Singh, other residents of the village.

“We pursued the case to the Raman Mandi Police Station, Talwandi Sabo MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu and to the DC as well, but no action has been taken against the sarpanch yet,” Panch, Gurlal Singh said.

They alleged that the sarpanch had been pocketing the funds released for the pension of the elderly of the village and had also added fake names in list of the beneficiaries. They said the sarpanch had also pocketed the money released for relaying of a road in the village. He had used the old material to reconstruct the road.

Division of property

Septuagenarian Roop Singh Khalsa complained that his wife and his two sons had thrown him out of his house and he had been left with no option but to live in a nearby Gurdwara. Carrying all the letters and complaints he had registered earlier with various departments, Khalsa requested the DC to help him get his share of the property.

“This is the third time I am registering my complaint. Earlier, I have registered complaints with the police, but no one helped me. I just want my share of the property and have nothing to do with the family,” he said.

No reprieve in land acquisition case

Amrit Lal Pathak and Harichand Singla, both residents of Green Avenue, reached the sangat darshan to demand the release of an official notification pertaining to exemption of the owners of the plots in the area from the land acquisition.

“Two years ago the Supreme Court passed a judgement in favour of the owners of the plots in Green Avenue and assured them that their land will not be acquired by the Improvement Trust, but the district administration or the department concerned is yet to release a notification announcing if the owners are allowed to construct houses or sell the plots off,” Pathak said.

They said, “ The departments concerned has neither been clearing the maps of the houses nor making public the map of the area.”

Civil cases can’t be resolved during the sangat darshan said the DC elaborating on the complaints which remain unresolved. Garg said he made sure that all the departments updated him with regular information pertaining to the cases submitted to him during the earlier sangat darshans.

He also clarified that only such cases which involve intervention of courts are the ones which remain unresolved.

“We make sure that all the cases that reach us during the sangat darshans are resolved. I have started meeting complainants apart from the sangat darshan as well to make sure that one doesn’t have to wait for the sangat darshan. There are some cases which can be resolved only by the civil courts, those are the only complaints we can’t touch and address,” said the Deputy Commisssioner.