More trouble is brewing in for senior Congress leader and former Cabinet Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who is already in judicial custody in a corruption case related to felling of trees and other illegalities with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday ordering a comprehensive enquiry into irregularities in the post-matric scholarship scheme.
Dharamsot, who was the Minister for Social Welfare during the Capt Amarinder Singh led Government from March-2017 to September 2021, was alleged to have diverted funds meant for post matric scholarship for SC students to benefit some of the “ghost institutions”. Even though a probe into the same indicated Dharamsot’s involvement into the multi-crore scam, no action was initiated against him at that time.
It has been learnt that now the AAP-led State Government is planning to act against Dharamsot. In a move towards the same, the Chief Minister Mann announced a comprehensive enquiry into the irregularities in the post-matric scholarship scheme for nailing the guilty of this heinous crime against students of weaker and underprivileged sections.
Sources maintained that the Chief Minister has asked the concerned departments to furnish the details of expenditure out of the funds meant for the scholarship.
“My government is committed to ensuring that oil and truth comes out in this scheme so that embezzlers are punished as per the law,” said the Chief Minister.
The Chief Minister assured the people of Punjab that this enquiry will be a threadbare analysis to ascertain every lapse and embezzlement of the public money under the post-matric scholarship scheme.
“These discrepancies are an intolerable crime against the weaker and underprivileged strata of society,” he said, adding that anyone found involved in this will not be spared and severest of severe action will be taken against them.
Mann said that the “barbaric embezzlement” of the funds under the post-matric scholarship scheme has ruined the bright future of millions of Schedule Caste (SC) students by depriving them of quality higher education.
The Chief Minister said that these irregularities were a daylight robbery over the interests of the weaker sections and AAP Government cannot sit on its hands for allowing the culprits to move freely.
He bemoaned that rather than acting against the guilty, the successive Akali and Congress Governments have patronised the politicians and bureaucrats who were involved in this sinister move. “Not only this, but the Akali, BJP, and Congress leaderships have also connived with each other to ensure that the perpetrators of this crime evade any action,” he said.
However, the Chief Minister said that now, the “government of common man” will expose the misdeeds of these parties as the nexus of politicians and bureaucrats have extended largesse to the educational institutes for their own vested interests thereby harassing the SC students, both mentally and physically.
“Action will be definitely taken against those who are responsible for these discrepancies...The guilty of these irregularities will be made answerable for the loot of every single penny from the state exchequer,” said Mann unequivocally.
Going into the background of the matter, the then state Additional Chief Secretary (Social Justice, Empowerment and Minorities) Kripa Shankar Saroj had sent a special report to the then chief secretary Vini Mahajan exposing Rs 55.71 crore scam, and sought action in the matter.
In the report, without directly naming the then Social Justice Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, the IAS officer had stated that he caused a loss of Rs 55.71 crore to the state exchequer. “While Rs 39 crore was missing from the official records, Rs 16.91 crore was paid to nine ghost institutions in September 2019 against whom the audit team had recommended a recovery of Rs 8.53 crore. In this way, these officials caused a deliberate loss of (Rs 16.91 and Rs 8.53) Rs 25.44 crore to the state exchequer,” his report said.
The erring officials were then served show cause notices to clarify the payments. “Despite receiving letters, even after a period of more than two months, the officials failed to give satisfactory replies and made untenable excuses,” the report stated, adding that this confirmed that the Rs 39 crore was distributed among ‘ghost institutions’, recommending action to be taken.
Notably, the Centre had released Rs 303.92 crore as funds for the scholarship in February-March 2019 in three instalments. Out of this, Rs 248.11 crore was withdrawn and it was through the balance of Rs 55.71 that the alleged scam took place.
Now AAP Government is initiating action on the basis of the report, submitted recently by a former District and Sessions Judge BR Bansal. The report stated 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 institutes by adopting unfair practices.