Punjab News: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has launched a probe into the Rs 39 crore post-matric scholarship scam. Now some officials in the Social Justice Department and private educational institutions have come on the radar of vigilance, for allegedly flouting the rules.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann took serious note of the matter and ordered the vigilance to probe the matter thoroughly and take criminal action against those involved in this scam.
Earlier, six officials were dismissed in the case. Four of these officers were from the Social Justice Empowerment and Minority Departments. At the same time, now all the records are being collected by vigilance.
The scam came to light in 2020 when the Congress was in power in the state. During this, it was revealed that Rs 16.91 crore was wrongly distributed to private institutions.
At that time a committee was formed to investigate the matter.
This committee had given a clean chit to the then minister of the department Sadhu Singh Dharamsot. Also, the process of recovering that amount was expedited.
However, no action was taken against the institutions even at that time, while the audit process was done again. During this, it was found that instead of taking action on the accused institutions, the officials had tried to give benefits to the institutions.
According to vigilance sources, lists of officials and institutions involved in this scam have been prepared by the department and they will now be called by vigilance to join the investigation in the future.
