Probe committee misses deadline to submit report
EX MOGA DC KULDEEP VAID IS ACCUSED OF GIVING A FAT HIKE TO FOUR RED CROSS SOCIETY EMPLOYEES
MOGA: The three-member committee formed by Moga deputy commissioner (DC) Dilraj Singh, a month ago to probe into allegations of favouritism against former DC Kuldeep Vaid is yet to submit its report.
The committee was supposed to submit its report latest by September 25.
Vaid is accused of facilitating a three-fold salary hike of four Red Cross Society employees, allegedly handpicked by him in 2016. Vaid is now a Congress MLA from Gill constituency.
The inquiry was ordered after HT reported the case.
On September 5, DC Dilraj Singh, who is also the ex-officio president of the society, had formed-a-three-member-committee headed by sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Baghapurana, Amarvir Singh Sidhu to probe the matter.
Assistant commissioner Harpreet Singh Atwal and secretary of Red Cross Society, Satnam Singh are the other two members. Satnam Singh said the society has handed over all documents pertaining to the case to SDM Amarvir Singh Sidhu, “but he has not submitted the report yet”.
Despite repeated attempts, SDM Sidhu and assistant commissioner Atwal did not answer calls and messages sent by HT.
Meanwhile, sources in the district administration said this is “time-buying tactics”.
THE CASE
The salary of the four Red Cross Society employees—steno Sukhwant Kaur Steno, driver Harjeet Singh, clerk Parminder Singh and attendant Pawan Kumar — was hiked three times to around ₹50,000 a month each after making them eligible for benefits under the Punjab Fifth Pay Com- mission report. The district Red Cross Society has 11 employees. Leaving aside these four, the other seven are making between ₹17,000 and ₹20,000 a month.
Records show that the Moga Red Cross Society has an income of ₹1.53 lakh against the expenditure of ₹3.3 lakh per month (including the hiked salaries).
Sources in the district administration had earlier told HT that the process to favour the four employees started with Vaid signing a document called a Paper-under Consideration (PUC) to make these employees eligible for the Fifth Pay Commission, with a condition that they will not claim their arrears from the Red Cross in future.
The fact that the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations do not apply to employees of the Red Cross Society was ignored.
For formality sake, the PUC had stated that, “These employees have submitted a self-declaration that they won’t claim their arrears from the government nor they will appeal in the high court or in any other court for recovery.”