Chandigarh, December 7
The release of discretionary grants by the Punjab Chief Minister and his men could well be illegal!
Article 283 of the Constitution of India provides that no money can be withdrawn from the consolidated fund of a state except by a law made by the state legislature. In absence of any such law, the withdrawal of money from this fund will be regulated by rules made by the Governor.
In Punjab, however, there seem to be no such rules. The policy circular for disbursement of grants out of the small savings fund has been issued by the director of small savings and the policy circular on disbursement of untied grants has been issued by special secretary, planning. This means that crores of rupees are given out as grants by the Chief Minister, the ministers and the chief parliamentary secretaries each year from government funds without even the requisite authority having laid down the rules.
“This puts a big question mark on the constitutionality of these grants as disbursed in Punjab,” pointed out advocate HC Arora of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Other than the untied grants, the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister issue grants from the small savings
funds. These cannot be given to any individual for personal benefit, nor can these be given to private institutions. These are meant for construction and repair of government buildings, roads, social welfare, for encouraging sports and education.
“While private sport clubs get these funds, no minister has bothered to give these grants for sports equipment in government schools,”
added Arora.
On several occasions, however, these grants have been given on fuzzy logic. The Pir Baba Dargah at Morinda, for instance, was given Rs 50,000 for “purchasing gym equipment”! Vishav Varta Publications, a Chandigarh-based organisation, got Rs 5 lakh for the “propagation of Punjabi language across the world.” Sarabjit Singh of Mohali had been given Rs 5 lakh for inspiring the youth into social welfare, Mansur Singh of New Delhi also got Rs 5 lakh for purchasing sports equipment, Sikandar Singh of Sangrur got Rs 10 lakh for completing a research project on martyr Udham Singh.
“The two schemes - the untied grants scheme and scheme for grants out of small savings - should be clubbed and one uniform policy for disbursement of grants should be evolved to put an end to chaos created by conflicting guidelines and absence of rules,” suggested Arora.
(Concluded)
