Chandigarh, 20 March – Congratulating the newly formed AAP Government under the leadership of CM Bhagwant Mann in Punjab, The National Scheduled Castes Alliance today demanded reopening of the investigations and reinstating the penalties on guilty institutions, which were waived off by the erstwhile Congress Government headed by Charanjit Singh Channi.
Paramjit Singh Kainth, President of NSCA wrote to the newly elected Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and the AAP supremo, Arvind Kejriwal regarding the irregularities found in the investigation done by the previous State Government in regards to punishing the culprits in the Post-Matric Scholarship scam. He said, “The Congress regime in its last cabinet meeting in January 2022 decided to quash the FIR’s registered against the guilty colleges and universities along with waiving off penalties levied on them. We had met the Hon’ble Governor Shri. Banwari Lal Purohit regarding this matter also and were suggested by the Governor to demand this action against the decision from the newly formed Government after 2022 Assembly Elections.”
Kainth said, “The decision was in lieu of election fund from these educational institutions by the previous State Government under the Congress party leadership. This scam of more than Rs. 300 crores was out rightly sidelined. The only collection done was the 9% penal interest as against the total amount which was to be recovered originally. The Government had earlier identified 70 educational institutions that had more than Rs. 50 Lakh each, to be recovered as penalties under the scam, totaling Rs. 101.51 crores. After the Channi led Cabinet decided on this decision on 1st January, this amount was reduced to Rs. 56.64 crores and without any explanation/notification for it.”
“We have high hopes from the new government and it shall be a welcome step if one of the first steps taken by this regime to tackle and reverse the corruption that was rampant under the previous government of Congress.” said Kainth.
