हिंदी
YAD activists protest and court arrest demanding registration of criminal case against Sadhu Singh Dharamsot for looting Rs 69 crore SC scholarship funds
Chandigarh, August 28 – Youth Akali Dal (YAD) activists today held a protest and courted arrest against Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes Welfare minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot for looting Rs 69 core central funds meant for SC scholarship for dalit students and announced that they would not let him come on the roads until the Congress government registered a criminal case against him and put him in jail.
Led by YAD President Parambans Singh Romana, the activists held a spirited protest against Dharamsot shouting slogans “Sadhu Singh chor hai” and “Daaku Singh Dharamsot Murdabad”. They also warned chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh that in case the minister was not dismissed and a criminal case was not registered against him they would intensify their agitation against him across the State.
Speaking on the occasion, the YAD President said it was for the first time in the history of the State that a Principal Secretary had conducted an inquiry and indicted his own minister. He said while the minister was accused of misappropriation of Rs 39 crore of which no official record was found, Dharamsot was also accused of disbursing Rs 24 crore to private educational institutions against whom the government had ordered recoveries.
Stating that the YAD and the youth of the State could not tolerate this day light robbery, Mr Parambans Romana said Dharamsot had played with the future of lakhs of Dalit students studying in institutes of higher education across the State. He said it was also condemnable that the minister had admitted that he had not distributed Rs 309 crore received under the SC scholarship head to SC students since ten months. “It is clear that Dharamsot wants to loot this money also and that the departmental head, who is in the rank of an Additional chief secretary, is trying to prevent this and that is why SC students are being made to suffer”.
Mr Romana said it was unfortunate that the Congress government was not taking any action against the minister who had indulged in corruption but YAD activists who had stood up to protect the rights of Dalit students were being jailed. “We are however not afraid of this. We are ready to go to jail a hundred times to assure justice for our Dalit brethren. We will continue our protest and force the State government to take action against Dharamsot. We will also approach the centre and demand that a probe should be ordered against him for embezzling central funds”.
The YAD President also condemned the chief minister for muzzling the voice of the Vidhan Sabha for holding a little over an hour session on the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said it was clear that the Congress government had failed on all fronts and that was why it was running away from a discussion on the pressing problems of the State. “We will take all the issues of the people to the streets be it the Rs 5,600 crore liquor scam and death of 130 persons in the hooch tragedy, the loot by the sand mafia, the embezzling of central funds be it MGNREGA or SC scholarship funds, discrimination against COVID-19 workers, justice for government employees and relief for students of private schools who are forced to pay steep fees”
