Amid the soaring political temperature in Punjab over the multi-crore scholarship scam in Punjab, the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash on Monday stated that the Central Government has ordered a probe in the matter.
“Union Minister Dr Thawar Chand Gehlot has ordered immediate departmental inquiry by two officers of Joint Secretary level in the Government of India,” said Som Parkash, who is Lok Sabha MP from Hoshiarpur.
In a press statement, Parkash said that he had raised the issue of Rs 63.91 crore scam in the Centre’s Post Matric Scholarship Scheme for Dalit Students “by Punjab Cabinet Minister and officials of the Punjab Government”.
He had written a letter to the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr Gehlot informing him that the Additional Chief Secretary in Punjab Government has pointed out the irregularities in the scheme and submitted a report to the state’s Chief Secretary.
“The report reveals that a senior Cabinet Minister of Punjab Government misused the money of scholarship meant for Dalit students, with the connivance of the lower officers of the Department,” stated the press statement.
It added, “Taking cognizance of this, Union Minister Dr Thawar Chand Gehlot has ordered immediate departmental inquiry by two officers of Joint Secretary level in the Government of India. Minister Som Parkash said that Dr Gehlot has assured that the strictest action will be taken against those involved in the scam.”
Notably, the state SC/BC Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot is in the line of fire for his alleged involvement in Rs 63.91 crore SC Scholarship scam, probed by the department’s Principal Secretary.
The opposition parties in the state have been demanding an independent probe into the scam, besides Dharamsot’s expulsion from the state Cabinet.
Dharamsot has been accused of disbursing Rs 39 crore received from the Centre on account of scholarship for SC students to ineligible private institutions.
The report, which has been prepared by Principal Secretary Kripa Shankar Saroj, also highlighted how Rs 24.91 crore from the same central fund meant for SC students, was given to private institutions following an illegal re-audit.
The report alleged that the Minister signed files by hand bypassing departmental procedures and even objections by the Principal Secretary were removed from the file. The senior bureaucrat, in his report, indicted the Minister along with a Deputy Director in the case, who was suspended last year also in connection with anomalies in the disbursement of SC scholarship.
CAPT AMARINDER SAYS CS PROBE NECESSARY IN VIEW OF DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN MINISTER AND SENIOR DEPT OFFICIAL
A day after opposition parties “rejected” a probe by the state Chief Secretary into SC Scholarship scam, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday made it clear that he had decided to assign a detailed and thorough investigation into the alleged scam to the Chief Secretary as there was clearly a dispute between the concerned Minister and the Social Welfare Department’s Additional Chief Secretary, whose internal report had become the basis of the allegations against the Minister.
“And as per the Rules of Business, Government of Punjab, 1992, “Cases in which there is difference of opinion between the Secretary and Minister in charge” shall be submitted to the Chief Minister through the Chief Secretary before issuance of orders, he pointed out.
“I have asked the Chief Secretary to thoroughly probe the matter before forwarding the case to me for action,” he said.
Capt Amarinder also trashed the Aam Aadmi Party’s so-called ‘rejection’ of the Chief Secretary inquiry into the matter, terming it totally absurd and irrational.
“Who are they to accept or reject anything?” he asked, adding that AAP itself had been rejected by the people of Punjab a long time back.
Asserting that he neither cared nor was interested in an endorsement of his actions by AAP, or any other party for that matter, the Chief Minister said that his only concern was the people of his state. “It is they who have to accept or reject me and my actions. Nothing else matters,” he said.
CM REJECTS BAJWA’S CONTENTIONS
Rejecting Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa’s contention that there was no comparison between the present scholarship scam and the bitumen scam, in which the latter’s name had figured 15 years ago, the Chief Minister asserted that “corruption is corruption, in any and every form”. The bitumen scam allegations against Bajwa, the then PWD Minister in his Cabinet during his previous term, were as serious as those being leveled now in the scholarship scam, said Capt Amarinder.
He also slammed Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo for supporting the demand for CBI probe into the alleged scam without waiting for the findings of the CS inquiry. “This lack of faith shown by both the MPs in their own party government showed their malafide intent,” he said, lashing out at Bajwa and Dullo for their continued and persistent anti-party actions.
CM’s ATTITUDE TOWARDS SCS EXPOSED BY TERMING DEMAND FOR CBI INQUIRY AS FRIVOLOUS: SAD
Stating that it was shocking that Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had termed the demand for a CBI inquiry into the SC scholarship scam as “frivolous”, SAD on Monday said that this was in itself a reflection on the utterly insensitive attitude of the Congress government towards the scheduled caste and weaker sections.
“SAD would not allow any injustice against Dalit students and would launch a movement to force the government to sack and jail the SC Welfare Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot besides recovering and releasing all money due to SC students as scholarship fee in higher learning institutions in the State,” said senior party leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundur and Prem Singh Chandumajra.