Chandigarh, Sep 5 (IANS) Taking cognizance of startling disclosures made to Punjab-based NGOs under the Right to Information (RTI) Act about gross misuse of funds collected from public services to pay for luxury of district officials, the Punjab government Friday evening ordered a probe into the scam.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ordered an inquiry into the alleged mis-utilization of funds in the Suwidha (convenience/facilitation) centres run by the government-sponsored Sukhmani societies at different district headquarters in the state.

A Punjab government spokesman said the chief minister Friday directed Chief Secretary R.I. Singh to get the matter probed under his supervision and submit a report within 15 days.

The chief secretary has directed divisional commissioners concerned to conduct a thorough enquiry into the working of these centres in the districts under their jurisdiction and submit reports at the earliest, fixing responsibility of the officials concerned.

The probe follows a controversy after information sought by three non-government organisations from the districts revealed that millions of rupees collected by deputy commissioners in Punjab’s 20 districts had been misappropriated and diverted by the district officials to enjoy official luxuries and even to foot personal bills.

The information provided revealed that public funds collected from Suwidha centres - which offer services like making driving licences, registration of births and deaths and marriages, arms licences and even ration cards - were siphoned off by most deputy commissioners to pay for parties, buying plasma televisions for their retiring rooms, laptops, furniture, mobile phones, air-conditioners, refrigerators, digital cameras, vacuum cleaners and other goodies.

The district officials did not stop at that. They have even been paying mobile and landline telephone bills and electricity and water bills from the Suwidha funds.

The Suwidha centres were started in 2004. The funds collected at these centres are not given into the government kitty and are not audited by the government agencies either. These funds were directly under the supervision of deputy commissioners.

The funds were also diverted to renovate and set up plush new offices for district officials without any accountability by higher authorities. Thousands of rupees were wasted in fulfilling personal demands of these officials.

Punjab’s deputy commissioners were in another controversy last year after it was highlighted that Red Cross funds meant for the welfare of people were being brazenly used by them to fulfill their own official and personal needs.

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