Chandigarh, September 1, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
The social justice and empowerment ministry will depute an officer of the rank of chief secretary or even senior to probe the SC scholarship scam and has assured to conduct an audit of Rs 1056 crore sent to the Punjab government for disbursement as scholarship to Dalit students.
Disclosing this after submitting a memorandum to social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot,in Delhi a delegation of senior SAD leaders and legislators said the minister had given them this assurance after learning that the Punjab government had entrusted the inquiry into the scam to the State chief secretary.
The delegation said the minister also assured to consider recommending a CBI inquiry into entire issue. The delegation also handed over the report of the State Additional chief secretary who blew the lid off the scam and has accused SC Welfare minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot with presiding over an Rs 63 crore scam besides other irregularities. Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Prakash was also present on the occasion.
The SAD delegation which was led by former minister and party SC wing president Gulzar Singh Ranike and included Sohan Singh Thandal, Pawan Kumar Tinu, Dr Sukhwinder Kumar and Baldev Khaira clearly told the minister that chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh could not be expected to ensure a free and fair inquiry into the scam.
They said the chief minister had become party to protecting and shielding the tainted minister. They also briefed the minister that the chief minister had already given a clean chit to Dharamsot, who as his “yes man” and belonged to Patiala district, by asserting no irregularities had been committed by the latter.
They said this had made the probe by the chief secretary infructuous besides demoralizing the entire bureaucracy which had been given a clear cut signal not to report corruption in their departments.
Mr Pawan Tinu brought to the notice of the union minister that the chief minister was also trying to throttle the voice of the Additional chief secretary by discrediting the latter’s inquiry report. He said the Punjab government had been systemically working to deny Dalit students their rights and that there was no hope of transparent disbursement of the SC scholarship under the present dispensation.
“Accordingly we requested the minister to create a mechanism to ensure SC scholarship funds amounting to Rs 309 crore which were lying with the government since ten months could be disbursed to genuine beneficiaries at the earliest”.
Stating that the issue had been raised by union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal with the social justice ministry earlier and led to today’s action, the delegation members said the scam was detected by the Additional chief secretary. They said the minister had been accused of misappropriation of Rs 39 crore for which no official record had been found besides disbursing Rs 24 crore to private educational institutions against whom the government had ordered recoveries.
The SAD leaders told the minister that Dharamsot was not stopped at these evil deeds alone. “He is proudly claiming that he has not distributed Rs 309 crores received from the centre for Dalit students since ten months.
This has led to prolonged suffering for SC students and thousands of them have not been given their degrees by private educational institutions because their scholarship fee has not been deposited by the State government”. The delegation members said Mr Thawar Chand Gehlot had assured them that all their concerns would be addressed.
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