In shocking disclosures, the officials of Amritsar Improvement Trust transferred crores of Government money to the bank accounts opened in the name of their relatives. Acting tough, the Government ordered registration of cases against seven officials while six others have been suspended.
“FIR (First Information Report) has been registered against seven persons in which certain employees of the Improvement Trust embezzled Rs 80 crores by opening various bank accounts,” said the state local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Sunday.
Reacting strongly to the multi-crore Amritsar Improvement Trust land scam, Sidhu called for a third party audit in the state. “We must learn lesson from this scam and regular checking of accounts and third party audit of all departments is a must,” he said.
Hitting indirectly at the opposition, Sidhu said that if third party audit of entire Punjab takes place, many skeletons will fall from the closet. “A volcano is waiting to erupt and I am waiting to punish all those who backstabbed Punjab,” he added.
Sidhu said, “We are trying to turn the weakness of previous government into our strength. We are doing a damage control as many irregularities were done by the previous government and Punjab was left reeling under heavy debt.”
The probe into the improvement trust matter has been handed over to the Amritsar police after the initial departmental enquiry.
“The initial probe got underway from three bank accounts in which there was an inkling of a scam to the tune of Rs two-three crore. Whereas on being probed by the officers, the net has widened to 70 bank accounts and now there is possibility of the siphoning of approximately Rs 80 crore,” said Sidhu.
Sidhu said that the departmental officials allegedly involved in the scam transferred money out of the governmental accounts in the name of their relatives and the scam remained under wraps for want of any departmental audit.
He said that on the basis of the probe headed by the Department’s Chief Vigilance Officer Sudip Singh Manak, the police has registered a case against three executive officers (EO) — Arvind Sharma, DC Garg, and Paramjit Singh. Besides, Deputy Controller Finance and Accounts (DCFA) Daman Bhalla, Tina Vohra, CA Sanjay Kapoor and bill clerk Satnam Singh were also booked.
“The money has been withdrawn by issuing 49 cheques under the signatures of Arvind Sharma, Garg issuing two cheques under his signatures and Paramjit Singh issued three cheques under his signatures,” said Sidhu adding that all the alleged wrongdoers would be suspended and charge-sheeted.
Sidhu also made it clear that any person found guilty in the scam would not be spared at all. “Whether any leader or officer, all guilty would have to face the law,” he declared.
The Minister said that full freedom has been given to the police to investigate the matter minutely so as to put those persons behind the bars who have looted public money.
Sidhu further revealed that the Department’s CA never cared to probe despite the fact that the government auditor raised 631 objections on the works carried out by these people.
“This might be the biggest improvement trust scam till date in which so gross loot of the public money might have been indulged in,” he said.
Announcing to put a stop to such scams in future, Sidhu said that third party audit of all the trusts would be carried out mandatorily to unearth the truth.
“The works done by the local Government Department during the previous period have been accomplished at more cost than Chandigarh and Haryana and in the process the department has been the loser,” he said.
The matter pertaining to irregularities in the installation work of highest Tricolour at the wagah border had also come to light and it is being probed. I am not afraid of those indulging in loot of the Punjab and would take the fight to its logical conclusion, he added.
The Modus Operandi
Department’s Chief Vigilance Officer Sudip Singh Manak said that the accused used to deposit the money pertaining to the Improvement Trust in different bank accounts, which used to be in the name of the Trust, and then withdraw the amount on the pretext of various works such as disbursal of salaries and other tasks by writing letters to the bank regarding the same.
Besides, it has also come to the fore in the preliminary investigation that these people made drafts in the names of their relatives and got them encashed.
He said that many bank accounts were not even entered in the Department’s cash book.