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.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan on September 27 to attend the state funeral of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. He will also separately meet his counterpart, Fumio Kishida during the visit, it said.
The village leaders have asked the parents of Dalit boy Ramesh and Shobha not to enter village until they pay the fine amount. Miscreants are also making threatening calls to the boy's mother.
The accused Shahabaz alias Chhote and Uved (brother of Nadeem) were arrested by the local police on July 21, however, Nadeem went absconding. Nadeem alias Sher Khan, is a bad character of Jyoti Nagar police station.
Addressing the media here, the SAD President said it was extremely unfortunate that the SGPC, an inter-state body, had been bifurcated by recognising a state legislation even though the power to make law on this issue was reserved with the Centre.
Emphasising speedy purchase, the Chief Minister directed that purchase, lifting, and payment should commence from the first day of procurement itself and warned of strict action if any farmer is put to any inconvenience.
