10 booked as RTI exposes Rs 29 cr panchayat fund scam

The Vigilance Bureau has registered a case against 10 persons, including members of the panchayat that was in power from 2019 to 2022, in connection of a Rs 29 crore scam at Nalas Khurd village.

The village panchayat in Rajpura came under the Vigilance Bureau lens after an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act exposed misappropriation of funds allocated to the village in lieu of setting up of Nabha Thermal Plant.

The plant was established at the village in 2013. The government had given the village panchayat Rs 60 crore for the land acquired for the plant.

When the current panchayat took charge in 2018, it was stated to have had Rs 55 crore in its account. After some villagers filed an RTI application under the “Funds Bachao, Pind Bachao” committee, it was revealed that only Rs 30 crore were left in the panchayat account.

The Vigilance Bureau had named sarpanch Munshiram, panches Surinder Singh, Som Chand, Jangir Singh and Ved Prakash, JE Amarjit Kumar, panchayat secretaries Jasvir Chand and Rajinder Kumar, contractor Dinesh Kumar Bansal, and Mohan Lal, a resident of Manakpur village in the case.

The accused have been booked under various section for fraud and cheating.

Ranjit Singh Saini, a committee member, who exposed the scam, said bills worth crores were shown to be spent on ghost projects, which existed on paper only.

According to the FIR by the Vigilance Bureau, sarpanch Munshiram, panches Surinder Singh, Som Chand, Jangir Singh, and Ved Prakash served in Nalas village from 2019 to 2022.

In January 2019, the village received Rs 58.43 crore from the previous panchayat. From January 2019 to August 2022, Nalas Khurd received an additional Rs 7.50 crore from various sources like bank interest, the 14th and 15th Finance Commissions and the sale of construction materials and land.

During the investigation, it was found that the panchayat spent Rs 32,20,59,348 on various projects. However, a detailed inspection of development works by the Vigilance Bureau revealed that there was no record of how Rs 29,96,33,614 was spent.

The panchayat approved the same work for the village stadium multiple times in violation of the Panchayati Raj Act. The total financial loss in the stadium work amounts to Rs 3,61,09,454.

An investigation into the works at the cremation ground revealed that the panchayat paid for an electric cremation furnace that was never installed. Payments for the furnace were made to various firms based on the JE’s estimate. According to the vigilance report, this fraudulent purchase resulted in the embezzlement of Rs 43,32,883.

Similarly, payments worth Rs 20,27,580 were made for the installation of cameras at various locations, but only a small number of cameras were found to be set up at the village.

In the report, it was disclosed that inflated costs were shown for the construction of cemented streets in the village.

Additionally, a sum of Rs 2,54,26,538 was overspent on the construction of drains, sewers and cremation grounds at Rai Majra village.

Funds were also misused in the construction of an SC dharamshala, the construction of a room in the old SC dharamshala and other projects.