Union Ministry of Human Resources Development will soon send a fact-finding team to Punjab to get the first hand information of embezzlement of Central Government funds, under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA).
A delegation of Congress leaders, led by leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Kumar Jakhar, met the HRD minister Pallam Raju and apprised him of the scam in Punjab Education Department relating to purchase of library books and science kits for the Government schools.
The delegation also presented him with a memorandum, signed on behalf of Punjab Congress President Partap Singh Bajwa, demanding independent probe in the scam running into crores of rupees.
Assuring the Congress legislative Party leader to send officers of his department to get first-hand information about this scam, Raju said that the appropriate action would be taken once all the facts were verified.
Raju also made it clear that though Centre provided money to the States as demanded by them to eradicate illiteracy from the country, but will not tolerate any bungling in the funds.
The memorandum, submitted to the Minister, read, “Punjab received approximately `1800 crore from 2007 to 2013. But, the recently unearthed ‘Book scam and Science Kit scam’ has exposed how the Punjab Education Department has violated all the rules and regulations to embezzle large amounts from these funds.”
Apart from the embezzlement, the fact that books meant for adults with vulgar material were sent to the primary school children only serves to prove the total lack of any system or procedures to be followed for utilisation of these central funds, it added.
The party blamed that the entire exercise seems to have been done in a “totally arbitrary manner with the sole purpose of making money. Even Punjab Government had also
confessed the embezzlement into the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan funds. But the State Government’s effort in appointing a retired judge to probe this scam without even proper terms of reference seems like more of an effort to give clean chit to the suspects than a serious investigation to bring to book the people responsible for this fraud.