Monday,
March 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India
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Rs 6 lakh fraud detected at PAU Ludhiana, March 24 The University has so far chargesheeted one employee, a cashier in the Comptroller office, but according to the inquiry, several employees, including some serving and former higher-ups may be involved. The amount of fraud is also expected to be much higher. The main basis for the involvement of other officers, as pointed out by the inquiry report was that under the rules, reconciliation of accounts (monthly checking of the accounts) was to be done by the Comptroller's office, but this rule had been given a go by. Sources in the university said that the report of the preliminary inquiry by an official of the office of Comptroller has revealed that an amount of about Rs 6 lakh had been embezzled by a former cashier. The modus operandi adopted included pocketing money through fake entries, indulging in temporary embezzlement by keeping the University money for personal use for six months and some double entries for one work. One such entry of over Rs 1.5 lakh was made twice in the account books. The report of the preliminary inquiry has been submitted to the Comptroller, Mr Gopal Dass, and the university is all set to hand it over to an inquiry officer within a week or two. The office of the Comptroller of PAU receives all cash and cheques of the income earned by the university by selling seeds, produce, auction, students' fee and that from the seed farms outside. The revenue thus generated is facilitated through the Comptroller's office to the bank account of PAU. In this case, the amount received by the Comptroller office was not deposited by certain employees for months together while they were supposed to do it within a day of accepting payments. What the dealing hands did with the money is not known yet. But the PAU definitely lost interest on the amount for many months as the rate of interest for PAU is much more than offered usually. The period of embezzlement is believed to be 1996 to 1998. The then cashier of the Comptroller office, Mr Baldev Raj Beri, had been chargesheeted on this account a few days ago. But in his reply he wrote that he did not know anything about these entries and the authorities should ask the then Comptroller, Mr S.K. Bhatia. Mr Beri could not be contacted. Sources said that the matter came to light only when the audit department started checking the records in 1998. They said that the
entries were made in such a manner that it was very difficult to figure out the correct amount. The Vice-Chancellor, after taking over, had ordered a thorough inquiry a few months ago. In the preliminary inquiry it has been held that had the successive Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDO) been careful in his work such a situation would not have arisen as according to the rules of the university reconciliation is to be done by the Comptroller office with the bank every month. But in this case this had not been done. |
2 well-diggers rescued Jagraon, March 24 Their lives were saved by efforts of the Jagraon police and villagers. Amarjit Singh and Sewak Singh, are six brothers, all well-diggers. The incident took place at 5 p.m. last night, when they were digging the well in the fields of Teja Singh. They had dug about 20 feet, when the upper crust of the well caved in, burying them. Teja Singh and labourers raised an alarm and, informed the police. Jagraon SSP Balkar Singh Sandhu and DSP Rajeshwar Singh reached the site. After some hours, the police pressed tractors into the rescue operation. The joy of the rescuers knew no bounds when they succeeded in rescuing Sewak Singh. The rescue work for Amarjit continued. He was finally taken out at 3.15 a.m, over 10 hours after he got buried. SSP Balkar Singh told Ludhiana Tribune that the rescue team went ahead on as one of the labourer continued to shriek loudly for help. Talking to Ludhiana Tribune from his bed in the Civil Hospital Jagraon, Amarjit Singh, who had a fractured shoulder said a miracle saved him. He was all praise for the Police Department and the villagers who rescued him. He said he continued praying to the Almighty for safety. “By sheer luck the bricks that were falling on me aligned in such a manner that I got enough breathing space”, he said. He felt pain in his left shoulder put all he could do was to callout loudly for help, hoping against hope that he would be rescued. After some hours, he heard voices and this fanned his hopes. When the rescuers reached him, he tried to guide them. Lying in the hospital, the labourer said he had dug over 40 wells, but this was his first brush with death. “I shudder at the very thought of spending those hours in complete darkness under the sand”. He however hopes he to be fit to re-start work soon. “We only know how to dig wells to earn our bread and butter” he said helplessly. |
Labourers robbed of Rs 16,000 Amloh, March 24 According to sources, the migrant labourers lived at three different tubewells owned by Piara Singh of Sounti village, and Harchand Singh and Avtar Singh of Salani village. They used to work on contract basis in fields during the day and return to the tubewells at night. The first incident of robbery occurred at the tubewell owned by Harchand Singh when the robbers, posing as policemen and armed with sharp-edged weapons, broke open the door and collected the cash after searching the belongings of the inmates. A similar modus operandi was adopted by the robbers in the other two cases. The robbers were around 10 in number, spoke Punjabi and seemed to be under the influence of liquor. Five of them remained outside at the time of incident, according to labourers. |
Fatehgarh Sahib to have
economic offences wing Mandi Gobindgarh, March 24 Earlier, the SSP garlanded the picture of Shaheed Bhagat Singh on his 72nd death anniversary in the municipal complex. Mr Bharat Bhushan Jindal, president, Mr J.P. Sharma, secretary-general, Mr Raj Bansal, senior vice president of the Chamber, respectively, Mr Dharam Pal, acting president of the Municipal Council, Mr Ran Singh Kalsi, member, BJP state committee, Mr Sukhwinder Singh Bhambri, president, Municipal Council, Comrade Parkash Singh, Mr Rajinder Teeto (both councillors) Mr Ghanaya Lal, industrialist, demanded immediate arrangement for truck parking. The industrialists said that one third of the industry in the town had been closed. |
Bhagat Singh's ideals ‘forgotten’ Ludhiana, March 24 These views were expressed by speakers participating in a seminar on ‘‘Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his legacy’’, held here today to commemorate the 71st death anniversary of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and
Sukhdev. The seminar was organised by the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Vichar Manch and Inqualabi Kendra. Speaking on this occasion, Mr Dalbir Singh, Associate Editor, Punjabi Tribune, said, ‘‘The revolutionaries sacrificed their lives for the independence of the country, but our leaders failed to do justice to their legacy. It led to corruption, communal disharmony and other economic problems. The public also failed to elect good leaders who could take care of their problems. It is now the duty of the youth to come forward or face an even worse situation in the coming days. ’’ Prof Jagmohan Singh, nephew of Bhagat Singh, lamented that had the country followed the ideology of the revolutionaries, it would not have had to face communal riots, like the recent ones in Gujarat. Democratic forces should unite to protect the rights of the minorities and maintain communal harmony, as conceptualised by Bhagat Singh. Mr Gursharan Singh, Punjabi dramatist, released a novel ‘Gatha Maha Manukh Di’ translated from the Hindi novel by Balbhadar Thakur. Among others, Mr Jaswant Singh and Dr Hardeep Singh also participated in the seminar. Later, the participants marchedss from Punjabi Bhavan to Shaheed Sukhdev Singh's residence in a procession. They blamed the successive state governments for the dilapidated condition of the 'national monument'. |
Police-public meet to be held
regularly Ludhiana, March 24 Announcing this at the first ever police-public meeting held in Kotwali police station after a gap of over a year in the Ludhiana police district, DIG Rohit Chaudhry said these meetings went a long way in building an understanding between the police and the public. Traffic problem, encroachments, misbehaviour by policemen, police inaction and refusal of permission for ‘jagratas’ were the main issues that cropped up at the meeting. Leaders of the Shiv Sena district unit boycotted the meeting. They alleged that they were not allowed to speak. Later they were persuaded and were given time to speak. |
Taxation Bar members meet Ludhiana, March 24 The meeting passed a resolution that a deputation will soon meet the Finance Minister and suggest for amending the proposals. Mr P.S. Garg, Mr Manmohan Singh and Mr Aijay Vohra expressed their views, among others. |
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