CHANDIGARH: The Punjab vigilance bureau on Friday registered an FIR against two sarpanchs, eight panchs, two panchayat secretaries, one junior engineer, 10 firms and four private persons for misappropriation of panchayat funds received in lieu of acquisition of panchayat land pertaining to five villages in Patiala district.
These villages include Akari, Sehra, Sehri, Takhtumajra and Pabra in tehsil Rajpura of district Patiala and their land was acquired for the Amritsar-Kolkata integrated corridor project. The vigilance bureau has registered a case under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 13(1) A and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused for the misappropriation of compensation amount received for the purchase of total 1,103 acres, three kanals and 15 marla land of these five villages.
A case has been registered against 10 firms and four private persons for supplying materials and labour under the name of development works in villages Akari and Sehri. Sarpanch of village Akari Harjit Kaur and panchs Charanjit Kaur, Avtar Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Darshan Singh and Kulwinder Kaur, and panchayat secretary posted in BDPO office Shambhu Jaswinder Singh. Besides these, sarpanch of village Sehri Manjit Singh and panchs Jatinder Rani, Lakhveer Singh, Pawandeep Kaur; panchayat secretary Lakhminder Singh and assistant engineer posted in the BDPO office Sambhu Dharminder Kumar have been booked as accused for misappropriation in funds.
The vigilance bureau spokesperson said that Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) had acquired total 1,103 acres 3 kanal (1,500 square yards) and 15 marla (375 sq yd) of panchayats land in these five villages in order to construct the Amritsar-Kolkata integrated corridor project and a compensation of Rs 285 crore had been paid to these panchayats. Cultivators of this land were also given a total displacement allowance of Rs 97.80 crore at the rate of Rs 9 lakh per acre.
But the villagers had complained to the vigilance bureau about the development works which were not done properly by the panchayats with the amount of Rs 285 crore and other grants received from 2019 to 2022. During the probe, it had come to light that the accused persons embezzled the funds in connivance with panchayat department officials.
