NRIs upset as Punjab govt spending their funds on 'milni' events

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, December 27

The NRIs, who are members of the NRI Sabha, are upset over the fact that the funds for organising the ongoing series of the ‘NRI Punjabian naal milni’ programme have been used from the NRI Sabha account, which they had raised from the membership fee of over 23,000 registered NRIs. The programme is being organised by the government.

Govt has No rights

It is for the first time the funds from the NRI Sabha accounts have been taken. No previous govt used these funds. We are an NGO, govt has no right to use our funds for an event. Jasvir S Gill, Ex-sabha president

Had written orders

The funds were transferred after I received written orders from the govt. All arrangements at the venue, including tents, tea, etc, had to be made from this amount. Gurpreet Sapra, Commissioner, Jalandhar

While the first series of the event had been organised on December 16 in Jalandhar, the subsequent programmes were held on December 19 in Mohali, on December 23 in Ludhiana and on December 26 in Moga and the last one is due in Amritsar on December 30. An amount of Rs 2 lakh had been given from the account of the NRI Sabha to the Deputy Commissioners for each event held in these districts.

The Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar, Gurpreet Sapra, confirmed having allocated Rs 10 lakh funds from the sabha accounts for the programme.

“The funds were transferred after I received written orders from the government. All arrangements at the venue, including tents, tea, etc, had to be made from this amount,” she said.

The past NRI Sabha presidents have strongly objected to the use of funds from the sabha by the government. The sabha has the deposits of nearly Rs 4 crore in its account.

“It is for the first time that the government has directly taken away funds from the sabha accounts. All previous governments that organised sammelans for the NRIs never used their funds. We are no government department. We are an NGO and the government has no rights to use our funds for a function done at their own will,” said ex-president of the sabha Jasvir S Gill.

“The government has misused some bylaws changes done in the past in the sabha constitution with regards to exercising financial powers and we will surely take it up at a higher level,” he said.

Another former president Kamaljit Hayre said, “We as members of the sabha had no information about the funds being used at the functions. The sabha does not belong to the government. The government does not give us any grant. So how can they go ahead and use our funds at its own will? This is a serious issue and the government will have to explain it”.