Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday said action would be initiated against relatives of influential people and politicians in the state, who got the jobs using fake documents.
In a tweet, Mann said he has learnt that many relatives of these influential people were appointed to government jobs after they had submitted fake documents. “Such people will be taken to task. We are going to make them accountable for the taxes collected from people of Punjab, which has been misused on them,” he said.
Sources said some cases have come to light in the past two months in the finance and cooperatives departments of the state government where people were appointed by accepting their fake degrees. One manager in Punjab Cooperative Agriculture Development Bank was dismissed from service on these charges earlier this week. He was a relative of an Akali leader.
Earlier, the Punjab Assembly Speaker had initiated an inquiry against the appointments made in the Assembly where aides and relatives of many ministers, MLAs, and officers were appointed during the previous governments’ terms. As many as 154 candidates were allegedly appointed to various posts in the House and 107 of these appointments were made at the behest of those in power. These appointments happened at the time when Congress ruled Punjab between 2017 and 2022.
Most recruitments took place on the recommendation of former speaker Rana KP Singh followed by former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, deputy speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti, former railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and former local bodies and parliamentary affairs minister Brahm Mohindra. The list of appointees which has been made public has the name of appointees mentioned alongside the names of those who recommended their names.
The highest number of recommendations were made by Rana KP Singh, who allegedly helped 62 non-deserving candidates get jobs. The second-highest number of recommendations were made by Manpreet Singh Badal, who made six recommendations. Brahm Mohindra and Ajaib Singh Bhatti recommended the names of four candidates each. Former union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal also recommended one name.