BDPO in soup over withdrawals from Moga panchayat accounts

MOST OF THE WITHDRAWALS RANGED FROM ₹50,000 TO ₹1.2 LAKH, AND BDPO JASPREET TOOK ₹ 13.36 LAKH

Block development and panchayat officer (BDPO), Moga-1, Jaspreet Singh is in soup after an alleged fraud in withdrawal of Rs 26.66 lakh from two bank accounts of Ramuwala Kalan village panchayat. It is alleged that he illegally appointed himself as the parbandak (administrator) of the village after the elected panchayat did not have the required attendance (quorum) at its meetings where decisions are taken.

The alleged fraud was committed from January 16 to March 8 this year, when the election code of conduct was in place, and when nobody was allowed to withdraw the money for any purpose. The accounts have been frozen and a probe ordered.

Here’s the anatomy of the case. After sarpanch Amandeep Kaur failed to met the quorum on October 7 last year, she requested the district development and panchayat officer (DDPO) to appoint an administrator, saying that of the nine panches, seven had refused to attend the meeting. Officials said that in a 10-member panchayat, the sarpanch needs at least five panches to commence the meeting.

The DDPO on November 31 appointed social education and panchayat officer (SEPO) Satpal as the administrator for a month till December 31. After that, no administrator was appointed due to enforcement of the poll code from January 4. Moreover, only the DDPO has the right to appoint an administrator for a village in the absence of a panchayat quorum; but not during poll code.

Sarpanch Amandeep told HT that due to differences within panchayat members, “not a single penny was spent on development in the village since the grant came in the village’s account”. “The scam only came to light when I received the bank statement that showed that Rs 5.85 lakh was transferred in BDPO Jaspreet’s and other firms’ accounts,” she said. Two weeks ago, she had asked the panchayat secretary and the BDPO about these transactions “who started making excuses”. She added, “Later, I got to know that the transaction amount has reached to Rs 21 lakh. I have approached the secretary of the zila parishad, Moga, and additional deputy commissioner , development.”

According to the Axis Bank statements of two accounts, BDPO Jaspreet on January 16 took cash Rs 24,000, while Rs 4.30 lakh were transferred in the name of a firm Punjab Bricks on January 17. In another joint account, an amount of Rs 22 lakh was withdrawn in 22 transactions. Most of the withdrawals ranged from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.2 lakh, and BDPO Jaspreet took Rs 13.36 lakh. Transactions of remaining Rs 13.66 lakh were in the names of Brothers Brick, Narula Trading Company, Bhagwan Singh, Aman Kumar Rai, Baljinder Singh and Som Nath.

Moga ADC, development, Rishi Pal has got frozen both the bank accounts and ordered an inquiry by the secretary, zila parishad, Ranjit Singh. He has been asked to submit a report within four days from Friday. “The DDPO has cleared that he had not made any parbandhak during the poll code. We will give an opportunity to the BDPO to have his say, after which the action will be taken accordingly,” the ADC said.