M A I N   N E W S

Defaulters cough up dues for fear of social stigma
Varinder Walia
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 2
The decision of the state government to put the names of economic offenders on huge public notice boards in the villages concerned has started showing results. Certain panchayats and senior politicians from the ruling party have deposited the outstanding amounts to save themselves from social stigma. However, the whopping Rs 10 crore which was allegedly embezzled during the five-year tenure of the SAD-BJP government is yet to be recovered.

To expedite the recovery, the Department of Rural Development has evolved a novel way to put social pressure on the economic offenders. Apart from villages, replicas of the public notice boards are being put up in the offices of block development panchayat officers.

Talking to TNS here today, Mr S.R. Ladhar, Director Rural Development, Panchayat, said the embezzled amount pertained to the distribution of funds during sangat darshan programmes and other irregularities committed by the panchayats in the past. He said the recovery of the embezzled amount which was only 1 per cent in the past was likely to be increased manifold after the decision of the state government to ‘defame’ the defaulters publicly.

In another disclosure, Mr Ladhar said more than 10 per cent of the shamlat land (belonging to panchayats) had been encroached upon with the connivance of a well-oiled nexus. He said the state government had ordered that the list of encroachers be put at public places like janj ghars and community centres of the villages. The gram panchayats, BDPOs and DDPOs would be duty bound to initiate action against such black-listed persons. He said many defaulters had approached the department for clearing the encroached shamlat land and outstanding amounts when they came to know that their names would be put in ‘black words’ at public places.

Mr Ladhar said 20 senior officials of the department had already been suspended for dereliction of duty. All district and block development officers had been directed to expedite recoveries outstanding against the defaulters. The state government had also directed the officials to distribute the amount among the various panchayats so that overall development of the rural areas was ensured. He said the assets, belonging to Panchayati Raj were being computerised and a circular to obtained information had been circulated among the BDPOs in the state. He said the computerisation of panchayat assets would help monitor the system in a better way.

The state government had also made ambitious plans to uplift the weaker sections in rural areas. For this, a budget of Rs 250 crore had been earmarked, Mr Ladhar said two villages in each block of the state were being selected for providing underground sewers, potable water and urban facilities. Later, these facilities would be provided to all villages.

Under another scheme, individual toilets would be provided to 10 lakh families under the Rajiv Kalyan Yojna in three years. He said 50 per cent of the villages would be covered by the end of this year.

In another development, 5 per cent of the total budget of zila parishads and gram panchayats would be spent on plantation of medicinal herbs and raising of nurseries in collaboration with the Forest Department.