HC seeks report on Jalandhar panchayat with no revenue record

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought a report of a Punjab government probe into a Jalandhar village which reportedly does not exist in revenue records but was getting grants for developmental works.

The court acted on the plea of Puran Singh who had alleged that a fake gram panchayats named Divya Gram was created to siphon off funds granted by the 14th Finance Commission and the local area development funds and the Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The rural development and panchayat also received grant from the board. The department constituted a gram Sabha for a non-existing village and took development grants, advocate Baltej Singh Sidhu told the court, adding that a legal notice was sent to the state for conducting a probe but no action was taken.

Sidhu further told the court that the voter list for Divya Gram was prepared in 2018 and subsequently a sarpanch was elected.

Information was procured under the Right yo Information (RTI) according to which no electricity connection was running in the name of any person in the village and no transformer was installed as only high-tension connection in the name of the Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan was running, he had told the court.

The government’s counsel informed the court that an inquiry into the entire matter is being held which is likely to be concluded in the near future. Issuing a notice of motion, the bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal asked the counsel that the inquiry be concluded by the next date of hearing and a report be placed on September 7.