NURMAHAL
Taking cognizance of Gag Dhagara village panchayat’s efforts for the past seven years to receive the contract-cum-lease amount of its land auctioned by the Mining Department for extraction of minor minerals, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) has directed the principal secretary of the chief minister to do the needful.
The Secretary, CMO, has forwarded a new report to the principal secretary for taking immediate action in the matter.
Dilbag Singh, a social activist, and resident of Baina Pur village had sent to the CMO a news report on the non-receipt of the contract-cum-lease money by the gram panchayat of the last village of Jalandhar district situated along the Sutlej.
Earlier the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) directed the Water Resources Department to do the needful but to no avail.
Village sarpanch Banat Kaur has said the former sarpanches had filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2015 seeking directions to a private contractor to deposit the balance amount of the contract money with the panchayat.
Then Justice Surya Kant and Justice PB Bajanthri, disposing of the petition, had said in their judgment on February 2, 2016, that the needful, including the determination of the amount payable by the private contractor, should be done within three months. It had directed the Mining Department to deduct the amount from the security deposit and release the gram panchayat’s share within a month.
The sarpanch claimed that an amount of Rs 1,48,15,757 was deducted by the Mining Department from the security deposit of the contractor, but the gram panchayat still didn’t get anything. She said the gram panchayat, in its meeting held on November 19, 2002, had passed a resolution for recovering the pending amount from the Mining Department and the Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Nurmahal. It sent the resolution to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Phillaur, but still, the panchayat was waiting for the release of the amount.
The sarpanch said the Mining Department had auctioned village mining khud in 2013 which remained in operation till 2015. Nurmahal Block Development and Panchayat Officer Dhara Kakar said the District Mining Officer had told her that the amount would be released by the headquarters as it had auctioned the khud and deducted money from the contractor’s deposit. He has sent a report in this regard to senior officials.