Two food and civil supplies controllers held in tender scam in Punjab
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 22 Nov, 2022 11:38 AM
Chandigarh, Nov 22 (IANS) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested two district food and civil supplies controllers (DFSCs) involved in the infamous tender scam in grain markets in Ludhiana district, involving former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu.
Besides, the VB has also initiated proceedings in the court against three accused -- R.K. Singla, Deputy Director with the food and civil supplies, and Pankaj Kumar and Inderjit Singh, both personal assistants of former food and civil supplies minister Ashu -- to declare them as proclaimed offenders.
A spokesperson for the VB said the bureau had already registered a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and of the Prevention of Corruption Act against contractors Telu Ram, Jagroop Singh and Sandeep Bhatia and owners and partners of Gurdas Ram and Company, besides officers of the state Food and Civil Supply Department for allocation of labour and transportation tenders in grain markets.
He said Telu Ram, former minister Ashu and Krishan Lal Dhotiwala and Anil Jain, both commission agents, have already been arrested and all are in judicial custody.
The VB has already presented chargesheets against them in a court at Ludhiana.
The VB on Tuesday arrested two more accused -- Sukhwinder Singh Gill, then DFSC Ludhiana West, and Harveen Kaur, then DFSC Ludhiana East. At present Gill is posted as DFSC Faridkot and Harveen Kaur as DFSC Jalandhar.
He said the accused were members and conveners of district tender committee at the time of allotment of tenders. They along with other members of committee were responsible to check the relevant documents attached with the tenders including list of transport vehicles but they had not verified the registration numbers of vehicles intentionally as the number of scooters, motorcycles, among others, were mentioned in the attached list of vehicles.
Despite submission of wrong documents, they have allotted tenders to the favourite persons by accepting bribe money from them, he added.
Superintendent of Police, Chitradurga, K. Parashurama said that along with the prime accused seer, the charges against accused number two, women's hostel warden Rashmi and accused number four Paramashivaiah are also valid. However, the police are gathering evidence against accused number two, a minor, and accused number five Gangadharaiah, he added.
He made the announcement while addressing a joint presser here with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann. Kejriwal also said that outdoor activities for all classes above class 5 will also be suspended.
Interacting with the mediapersons here, the Chief Minister, accompanied by his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, said the state government is working on a multi-pronged strategy and has already roped in agriculture experts and the farmers unions for working out a viable solution for this problem.
Around 810 km of metro line are operational in 20 cities in the country while more than 980 km of metro network and RRTS is currently under construction in 27 cities, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri said on Friday, adding India currently has the fifth-largest metro network in the world.
The ministers said according to the data till date many cities of Haryana are in the first 10 cities in the list of the most polluted cities in India, including Hisar, Faridabad, Sirsa, Rohtak, Sonepat and Bhiwani, etc., while from Punjab, no city is in the first 10.
Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said local shopkeeper, Sandeep Singh Sunny, has been arrested for firing at and killing the Shiv Sena leader, while terming the incident as unfortunate.
