Sarpanch suspended for dereliction of duty

Tuesday, 27/11/2012

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Following the charges of dereliction of duty, rural development and panchayats director Balwinder Singh Multani has suspended sarpanch Gurmeet Kaur of Jhamat village near here.

The suspension orders were issued on November 15, wherein the director clearly mentioned that the sarpanch and panches had failed to do the required follow-up towards the “retrieval” of panchayat land that was sold to private entities.

Nineteen acres of prime panchayat land worth Rs 200 crore adjoining South City in Ludhiana was sold to private entities from 1994 to 2003.

The sarpanch has been carrying on with her office till date. Block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) Ranjit Singh sent a letter to the panchayat secretary, gram panchayat Jhamat, on Monday to put her under suspension and take charge from her.

Gurmeet Kaur is the daughter-in-law of Charan Singh, former panch, the main accused in the scam.

The rural development and panchayats director said, “The sarpanch was suspended as she had failed to follow the case in her capacity as sarpanch. The delayed action by the BDPO must have been because of the delay in official communication which is sent by post,” the director clarified.

Meanwhile, the government has failed to take action against the senior officers indicted in the inquiry report by former BDPO Ludhiana I, Dhanwant Singh Randhawa. The officials are Sumer Singh Gujjar, who was ADC (D) in Ludhiana in 2003, former director rural development and panchayats in 2005 Sarvjit Singh and the consolidation officer posted in Jalandhar in 1994.

The report also carried the names of former BDPOs Harmandeep Singh, Santosh Kumari, Navneet Joshi and Mahinder Singh. Some of the above officials had served in Ludhiana for two tenures.

Gurmukh Singh and Gurpal Singh, whistleblowers in the land scam case, had filed a case against the gram panchayat in the Punjab and Haryana high court, following which the court in its orders dated July 5, 2012, had asked Ludhiana deputy commissioner Rahul Tiwari to take action. Following the orders, Tiwari had called meetings of the whistleblowers and panchayat members to reach a consensus but due to unavailability of land revenue record, no action has been taken. “BDPO Dhanwant Singh Randhawa is investigating the case and has asked for more time to procure the documents. I will initiate action soon after getting the report,” the deputy commissioner said.

Almost three acres of “chappar land ” (village pond), a part of the government land, was also encroached upon and some houses were built on it in the past two decades. Some houses belong to the suspects.