Patiala: Purchased with welfare funds, IAS officers keep laptops for personal use

Karam Prakash

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Patiala, November 23

Several senior IAS officers, posted in the Labour Department on various posts, did not bother to hand over the official laptops at the time of leaving the department. The information has been revealed in an RTI reply. A copy is available with The Tribune. The laptops, worth lakhs, had been purchased from the Labour Welfare Fund.

In one such case, an IAS officer, who was posted as Labour Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Labour Welfare Board, did not return an Apple MacBook Pro worth Rs 1.79 lakh. The senior IAS officer is now posted as the Divisional Commissioner. It has been learnt that since 2016, 62 laptops have been purchased by the Labour Welfare Board for various employees, including senior IAS officers, for office work. As per the RTI reply, they cost over Rs 35 lakh. Of the 62 laptops, the board said only 23 were available now and there was no record of the remaining.

Vijay Walia, a labour rights activist, said, “So many laptops have been purchased by the board. An inquiry should be conducted to identify the officers responsible for the misuse of labour funds. Many IAS officers have kept the office laptops for personal use after leaving the department.”

Labour Principal Secretary Manvesh Singh and Labour Commissioner TPS Phoolka could not be contacted for comments despite repeated attempts.