Hindustan
Times: Kalanaur (Gurdaspur): Wednesday, October 24, 2012.
This
historical town, which witnessed Emperor Akbar’s coronation, has room for
fiction too in the form of Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College.
No
institution by this name exists there, yet certain colleagues of then
agriculture minister Sucha Singh Langah in the previous Punjab cabinet
(2007-12) gave grants to the tune of Rs 38 lakh to the ‘college’ run by his
educational society, as per details obtained under the Right To Information
(RTI) Act.
Thanks to his
then cabinet colleagues, Langah also got Rs 41-lakh grants for Guru Arjan Dev
College of Nursing, Dhariwal, 22 km from here. The only difference is that this
college exists.
Former cabinet
minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, current ministers Adesh Partap Singh Kairon,
Janmeja Singh Sekhon, Surjit Jyani and Parminder Dhindsa, member of Parliament
Sher Singh Ghubaya and chief parliamentary secretary Sohan Singh Thandal
disbursed grants for development works of the non-existent college from 2009 to
2011. And that too without bothering to pay a visit to the ‘campus’.
“I gave the
grant cheques to Langah in good faith. He never told me that the college is yet
to come up and that he is the society president. It’s his responsibility if the
grants were misued,” said Sekhon. Jyani and Dhindsa said they gave the grant
cheques as Langah claimed that these were meant for a prestigious institute of
his area.
“There is no
Khalsa college in Kalanaur. The only college in the town is the Gian Sagar
college,” said Jatinder, a local resident, when the HT team asked him about the
college’s address.
The
authorities of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) and Punjab Technical University
confirmed that no such college in Kalanaur was affiliated to them. GNDU gives
affiliation to colleges in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur,
Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts, while PTU gives permission to technical
educational institutions across Punjab.
Raking in
moolah Within a fortnight or so, Langah secured Rs 20 lakh for the ‘college’-
Kairon gave a grant of Rs 5 lakh on January 14, 2009, followed by Ranike (Rs 6
lakh, January 21), Ghubaya (Rs 2 lakh, January 27), and Sekhon (Rs 7 lakh,
February 2).
After getting
these grants, Langah, as society president, signed a lease deed with Nishan
Singh, a resident of Fateh Nangal village, for 2.25-acre land at Dhariwal, 22
km from Kalanaur. The lease was fixed for a meagre sum of Rs 15,000 per annum
for a period of 35 years. Subsequently, Langah received grants from Dhindsa (Rs
5 lakh), Jyani (Rs 10 lakh) and Thandal (Rs 3 lakh).
As per the
2009-10 rules, grants can be sanctioned for repair, maintenance and renovation
of school buildings. Such grants are not allowed for the construction of rooms
of school buildings. However, this rule was flouted in Langah’s case.
Interestingly,
the grants were released for the Kalanaur ‘college’, but ‘utilised’ for the
Dhariwal institute.
‘Defunct’
society at Kalanaur;
Langah claims
that he is the president of the Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College Society,
Kalanaur, which was registered with the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in
1998. Langah’s wife Harbhajan Kaur is the treasurer, while his son is on the
11-member board of trustees. According to Section 3 of the Memorandum of
Association, signed by Langah and others in 1998, the society has its
registered office in Kalanaur. However, the society has no office in the town.
The ex-minister claims that his society is now based in Dhariwal, his native
place.
Later that
year, the Gurdaspur Improvement Trust allotted a 1-acre plot at Gurdaspur to
Langah at reserved rates for his society, even though it had no experience in
the education sector.
However, no
educational institute has come up on this plot. The commercial value of this
property is Rs 8-10 crore.
Balwant Singh
Kalanaur, a founder member of the society, told HT, “It was my wish to build a
college at Kalanaur. However, after Langah tried to use society for personal
gains, we disbanded it.”
“For us, the
society has been defunct since 1998, when Langah tried to get allotment of 12
acres of panchayat land at Kalanaur, and we opposed it. If Langah has taken
grants in the name of the Kalanaur-based society, he has cheated local
residents. We will approach the high court for an investigation into the
disbursal of grants,” he added.
Pressure
tactics;
When asked
about the grants for a fictitious college, Langah initially remained evasive, stating
that the matter regarding the Kalanaur plot allotment was pending in the SAS
Nagar court, where he is facing a disproportionate assets case.
Langah even
tried to lure and threaten this correspondent through his supporters Amrik
Singh Mohali and Jaswinder Singh. However, when he was told that HT would go
ahead with the story, he finally started talking.
“Don’t mix
politics with education. The Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College Society,
Kalanaur, is running five educational institutes. The college exists and would
start B.Ed course in the coming year,” Langah said. “Yes, I have taken
government grants. There is nothing wrong in it,” he said, adding that the
college was under construction at Dhariwal.
He did not
reply when asked why his cabinet colleagues had given grants only to his
‘college’ rather than the government schools at Kalanaur.
Langah,
former MLA from Gurdaspur’s Dera Baba Nanak constituency (which includes
Kalanaur), lost in the January 30 assembly elections.
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