‘Misuse’ of CM Relief Fund: HC notice to Punjab

The petitioner has demanded that the funds,which have been ‘misused’,be recovered from the Chief Ministers and Chief Secretaries concerned.

Advocate H C Arora,counsel for the petitioner,referred to the audit reports for the period April,1993,to March 31,2003,to substantiate the contention that an amount of Rs.29.68 lakh,collected for the fund,was not deposited in the cash book maintained for the purpose. The Examiner,Local Funds,in his audit reports had repeatedly sought explanation for the anomaly,but the CM’s office failed to account for the same.

Interestingly,the state (Punjab) took a stand in February,2009,by submitting a note to the Examiner,Local Funds that a fire had broken out on August 31,1995,after the bomb blast outside the Secretariat,in which former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh was assassinated.

The state (Punjab) stated that a majority of the records of the Relief Fund had been destroyed in the fire,while assuring that care shall be taken in the future to enter all the Fund-related amounts in the relevant cash book.

The petitioner,however,alleged that the ‘excuse’ was false,as no such complaint (of the cash book being lost in the fire) had been lodged in any police station.

The petitioner claimed to have obtained copies of various audit reports from the office of Examiner,Local Funds Accounts,by filing applications under the RTI Act. He said the copies reveal the aforesaid embezzlement of Rs.29.68 lakh in the CM Relief Fund. Besides,the report also highlights that a number of files pertaining to the disbursement of funds from the CMs Relief Fund were not produced before the audit party,despite repeated objections raised in several audit reports for about a decade. The petitioner cited 177 instances in which the funds had been misused.

It has been further alleged by the petitioner that in response to the RTI application,the Punjab Government issued a notification on January 15 earlier this year,laying down new guidelines for disbursement of funds from the CM’s Relief Fund.

It made the guidelines effective from April 1,1998,so as to regularise all illegal payments made from the fund,said the petitioner.

The petitioner also referred to certain loans given to individuals and organisations from the CM Relief Fund,which are yet to be fully recovered by the state government. The petition cites a few instances: An amount of Rs.15.64 lakh was given to DC,Ludhiana,in December 2005 for earthquake victims in Pakistan,for which the DC is yet to furnish the receipts and bills.

The petitioner also referred to another payment of Rs 25 lakh from the CM’s Fund to Bharat Rachnatamic Samaj Peace Conference through DC Jallandhar,which is yet to be accounted for through receipts or bills.

The petitioner also alleged that the Punjab Government has not got the CM’s Relief Fund audited by the said Examiner,Local Funds,since April 2006 onwards.