Punjab Govt suspends 11 EO's

Chandigarh, May 25 (UNI) Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia has suspended 11 Executive Officers (EOs) of different municipal councils in the state.

Those suspended include Vijay Kumar Sharma (Pathankot), Manjinder Singh (Deenanagar), Manmohan Singh (Gurdaspur), Hardev Singh (Ferozepur), Jagtar Singh (Sujanpur), Aman Kumar (Kapurthala), Devinder Kumar Goel (Talwandi Bhai), Dewan Chand (Abohar), Bhupinder Singh Sra (Giddarbaha), Krishan Chand Sharma (Fazilka) and Krishan Kumar Goel (Rama).

Besides show cause notices have been issued to 27 EOs'.

Disclosing this here today Mr Kalia said that it was unfortunate that these officers were involved in "planned financial frauds" for the past sometime. He said that they were habitual in not depositing the pensions and other contributions deduction from the employees' salary but were diverting the funds for other purposes.

The suspended executive officers had diverted more than Rs 35 lakh each from out of the pensionry and other benefits of the employees of urban local bodies.

The Minister further said that in pursuance of the order of the High Court the retired employees have already been paid their dues and efforts were being made to deposit amount of serving employees by the end of June.

Reiterating the Government's firm resolve in bringing transparency in the public dealing system he warned the employees in general and the employees of his department in particular not to indulge in any kinds of financial irregularities in the larger public interest. He warned that strict action would be taken against the erring officials.

UNI