Authorities fail to act against those indicted

MOGA:Three weeks after the district development and panchayat officer (DDPO) submitted his inquiry report confirming an embezzlement of Rs 58.55 lakh from Dhurkot village panchayat bank account, the state rural development and panchayat (RDP) department has failed to initiate any action so far.

The scam was highlighted by HT two months ago. DDPO Ravinderpal Singh, who got transferred to Faridkot after he exposed the scam, in his report indicted three persons, including sarpanch sarpanch Sarabjit Kaur, panchayat secretary Karam Singh and block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) Jaspreet Singh.

Jaspreet is under suspension for his alleged role in another grant scam.

The probe report was sent to rural development and panchayat department on June 14. On delay in initiating action, director of the department Siban C said:”BDPO Jaspreet is already under suspension while panchayat secretary will be suspended in a day or two. As sarpanch is an elected representative, it involves a different procedure under the Panchayati Raj Act. We are working Out the modalities.”

Dhurkot village falling under Moga block-1 had received Rs 71-lakh compensation from the government in 2016 after some the village common land was acquired for four-laning of the National Highway-71.

The accused allegedly withdrew Rs 57 lakh between January 1 and March 31 this year from the panchayat account and the amount was shown as expenditure on development works. However, not a single penny was spent on any such work.

Moreover, the grant was spent during the period when the poll code of conduct was in force and no official is allowed to withdraw money from the government exchequer for any purpose.