Chandigarh, March 25:  Punjab’s Rural Development and Panchayats Minister, Tarunpreet Singh Sond, while responding to a question in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, stated that an FIR has been registered at Police Station Ferozepur City after an departmental investigation revealed the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 1,80,87,591 from grants received under the 15th Finance Commission and allocated to Block Samiti Ferozepur. He further informed that the case has been handed over to the Vigilance Department.

Fraudulent withdrawal : Minister Confirms FIR Against BDPO

While replying to a question raised by MLA Partap Singh Bajwa, Minister Sond stated that FIR No. 434, dated 13.12.2024, has been registered at Police Station Ferozepur City against Kirandeep Kaur BDPO Jaswinder Kaur then Chairperson of Panchayat Samiti Ferozepur, Manjinder Singh (Data Entry Operator, e-Panchayat), Rekha Devi (Data Entry Operator, e-Panchayat), Shubhdeepak Bajaj (Data Entry Operator, e-Panchayat), and Jaspreet Kaur (Zila Parishad Ferozepur, Data Entry Operator, e-Panchayat).

The instructions have been given to the concerns to terminate the employees of e-Panchayat society. These employees include Manjinder Singh, Data Entry Operator e-Panchayat, and Jaspreet Kaur, Zilla Parishad Ferozepur Data Entry Operator e-Panchayat. In addition, it has also been instructed to issue a notice to the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), Ferozepur. He added that Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Ferozepur has also been instructed to recover the funds of Rs. 1,80,87,591 from the responsible officers/employees.

Sond said that in order to prevent such incidents in the future, the matter is under the consideration of the department. They are collaborating with the IT team of Panchayati Raj Ministry, Government of India. The aim is to make the website’s security stricter. Meanwhile, the departmental officials and employees have been asked to be careful.