Probe indicts 6 officials in SC post-matric scholarship scam in Punjab
Chandigarh, July 5
In the two-year-old multi-crore scam in the disbursal of SC post-matric scholarship funds to private educational institutions, a departmental inquiry has held six officials of the Department of Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities responsible for wilfully causing a financial loss to the state government, running into crore of rupees.
In the inquiry report recently submitted by the inquiry officer, BR Bansal, a former District and Sessions Judge, it has been pointed out that instructions of the then Chief Minister and the Principal Secretary of the department for the disbursal of scholarship funds to SC students were ignored to pass undue benefits to certain private institutions by adopting unfair practices.
The inquiry was conducted against six officials — Parminder Singh Gill, Deputy Director, Charanjit Singh, Deputy Controller, Mukesh Bhatia, Section Officer, Rajinder Chopra, Superintendent, and Rakesh Arora and Baldev Singh, both senior assistants, after chargesheets were served on them by the department in 2020 following a probe conducted then by a high-level committee comprising IAS officers KAP Sinha, VP Singh and Jaspal Singh.
The Principal Secretary, Department of Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, Ramesh Kumar Ganta, said the government was in the process of initiating action on the report.
The inquiry officer pointed out that instead of taking action against the defaulter educational institutions, undue financial benefit running into crore of rupees was extended to the institutions. Instead of taking approval from the Finance Department for a reaudit of 14 institutions, the names of other institutions were wrongly added by erring officials to extend undue financial benefit to them. It has also been pointed out that undue payment of Rs 16.91 crore was made to nine institutions after a reaudit of their accounts by the Directorate without any order from the Finance Department.
The erring officials, instead of making a single file, made multiple files for approval and made payments to specific institutions in violation of a Cabinet decision for fair and transparent disbursal of funds. A former Additional Chief Secretary, Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, Kirpa Shankar Saroj had initially submitted a report to the then Chief Secretary on August 2020, regarding gross irregularities in the disbursal of funds. The inquiry officer has pointed out that “noting pages” recorded by the then Additional Chief Secretary were found missing from the record.
Undue benefits for private institutions
- The inquiry report was recently submitted by the inquiry officer, BR Bansal, a former District and Sessions Judge.
- It has been pointed out that instructions of the then Chief Minister and the Principal Secretary, Department of Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities, for the disbursal of scholarship funds to SC students were ignored to pass undue benefits to certain private institutions by adopting unfair practices.
