category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Punjab Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar on Friday claimed to have unearthed a scam of about Rs 121 crore in the department and directed officials to hand over the probe to the vigilance bureau. The scam pertains to the alleged withdrawal of a part of the money received from the sale of panchayat land by some officials and sarpanches in violation of rules, officials said. According to an official statement, the minister directed officials to immediately charge sheet around a dozen officials of the department along with six sarpanches over the scam, the statement added. Bhullar said the panchayats of Salempur, Sekhewal, Selkiana, Bounkar Gujran, Kadiana Khurd and Dhanansu of the Ludhiana-2 Block received an award of Rs 252.94 crore after the acquisition of hundreds of acres of panchayat land of these villages, but Rs 120.87 crore was withdrawn from this amount with the alleged connivance of some corrupt officers and employees of the department along with sarpanches. The minister said that when the matter came to his notice, he immediately ordered a thorough probe by a team under the supervision of a joint director-level officer. He said that the investigation revealed that block development and panchayat officers (BDPOs), panchayat secretaries and sarpanches have withdrawn Rs 120.87 crore from the fixed deposit (FD) at their own level and the amount was spent without administrative and technical approvals of the department. He said, No one has any right to withdraw such FD without the approval of the government. He said that only the interest received from this FD can be spent on development works of the village after taking administrative and technical approval with the advice of technical officials. While directing the officials to hand over the investigation to the vigilance bureau, the minister said that the process of recovering the money spent without departmental approval from the accused officials and sarpanches has been initiated. The minister also said he has issued directions for blacklisting four private banks which did not cooperate during the investigation. He said that the award money of these panchayats was deposited in the branches of these banks, but the bank managers did not cooperate with the investigative team and were also reluctant to provide the records. The minister directed the officials to immediately withdraw funds from these banks and deposit the same in the bank prescribed as per the guidelines and write to the official concerned for action against the bank managers. (editor dailyworld.in)