HC seeks detailed responses from Centre, Punjab

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday sought detailed replies from Punjab and Centre on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a CBI probe into post-matric scholarship scam reported in Punjab.

The high court bench of chief justice RS Jha and justice Arun Palli acted on the plea of Satbir Singh Walia, a Chandigarh resident. The responses have been sought by November 10. A detailed order on the plea, which seeks to implead cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot as party in the case, is awaited.

The central governmentsponsored scheme is aimed at giving award scholarship to meritorious students belonging to economically weaker sections so as to provide them better opportunities for higher education. The plea demands transfer of the probe to the CBI and registration of FIRs against the officials’ responsible for the embezzlement. The court has been told that despite there being reports on embezzlement three years ago, no action has been taken against anyone to date.

The Centre and Punjab have appointed fresh teams to reinvestigate the matter. However, neither the Centre nor state has clarified as to whose report shall be final and both are investigating on their own without lodging any FIR, the court was told, adding that it seems that both have no intentions to take any action against the persons involved in the scam even as the report made by the additional chief secretary, Kirpa Shankar Saroj, prima facie establishes that the scam is there and there is involvement of high level official among others. HTC