Chandigarh, July 8
Slamming the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government for rigging the post-matric scholarship of the Dalit students and ruining their future; the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema said that by not sending the probe report of the post-matric scholarship scam to the centre, the Punjab government was shielding its corrupt ministers. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Thursday, Harpal Singh Cheema said that the Centre should intervene and take action against Captain Amarinder Singh, his ministers Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Manpreet Singh Badal and others involved in the scam.
Cheema further said that the investigation report submitted by additional chief secretary Kirpa Shankar Saroj on the post-matric scholarship scam last year in August revealed that a scam of Rs 63.91 crore had come to light in the Centre’s scheme under minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot. It was stated that while records pertaining to Rs 39 crore were missing, an amount of Rs 16.91 crore was paid to such institutions against whom the audit team had recommended a recovery of Rs 8 crore, thus costing the state exchequer Rs 24.91 crore, he added. “So far, the centre government has asked for the report of the additional chief secretary from the Punjab government twice, but the matter is being dilly-dallied to save the corrupt minister,” said Cheema.
The AAP leader said that the scholarships were given by the Social Welfare Minister to his crony managers of fake colleges and as a result, private colleges had not received funds and lakhs of Dalit students had been deprived of their right to education. Taking a dig at Captain Amarinder Singh, Cheema said that to save his minister, the Captain government had dramatized of constituting an investigation committee, later giving a clean chit to Dharamsot to befool the people. He said that the committee had also commented on the performance of the IAS officer and the state government transferred him to another department.
Cheema demanded that the central agency should take investigation ahead and justice should be provided to the Dalit students, so that their future can be secured. He said that the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government had squandered crores of rupees in the scholarships of two lakh Dalit students and jeopardized the future of the students. Cheema further demanded that the SC Commission should take action against ministers Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Manpreet Singh Badal for ruining future of lakhs of Dalit students and they should be booked as per law.
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