Chandigarh, December 6
Is Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal distributing discretionary grants or grants that divide people?
In the past few years, the Chief Minister has shown no hesitation in distributing grants for the construction of “separate” cremation grounds for the SC people and general category population in same village.
In Sakona, Dadehra, Dughaat, Kalyan, Rauni, Bihipur, Dabhlan, Troran Kalan, Sadarpura, Lalouchi Bhedpura villages - all in Samana constituency - grants were given for the construction of outer walls of cremation grounds being used by the SC community. However, in some of these villages, he released the grants, the same day, for the construction of boundary walls of cremation grounds being used by higher caste families.
“It’s obvious that one carries the tag of one’s caste even after the death and the least a Chief Minister of a state can do is to discourage it. Here, he is encouraging it by doling out grants in such a manner,” said advocate HC Arora of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, who gathered information on the use of discretionary grants under the Right to Information Act.
Similarly, the Chief Minister has disbursed grants separately to various communities for construction of dharmshalas for members of the SC community and the Ravidas community.
“Distribution of such grants fly in the face of constitutional provisions that no citizen shall, on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth, be subjected to any disability, liability and restriction with regard to the use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or partly out of state funds or dedicated to the use of general public,” pointed out Arora.
This is not all. Grants have been given for purposes specifically prohibited by the government. The “untied grants” - drawn from the department of rural development and panchayats - are to be allocated for completing public service projects. There is specific prohibition against using these grants for commercial organisations, private institutions, voluntary organisations, religious institutions such as clubs, trusts,
registered societies and co-operative institutions.
And, this is how these funds were used: Manoranjan Kalia, Local Bodies Minister, gave 90 per cent of his grants to Dasehra and Ram Leela committees, private educational institutions, sports clubs, youth welfare clubs, the Bharat Vikas Parishad, mahila mandals for purchasing utensils, religious trusts, kabaddi or hockey associations, jagran committees, newspaper distributors association, etc.
Tikshan Sood distributed grants to a large number of city welfare councils, the Mahila Mandals and even the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, and to the Katha Committee in Amritsar.Parminder Singh Dhindsa released grants to more than 200 sports clubs, youth clubs and other organisations. He also distributed grants to private societies and trusts.
“These grants are not subject to any government audit, nor their end-use can be effectively verified. Most organisations, which are availing a lion’s share of these grants, are cooperative societies, clubs, private educational institutions, whose functioning is not open to public gaze,” said
Arora.
(To be concluded)
