Chandigarh, May 20- President of Bharatiya Kisan Union Rajewal, Mr. Balveer Singh Rajewal said that looking at the pathetic condition of various institutions of the Cooperative Department in Punjab, it can be said that if immediate steps are not taken, the cooperative movement in Punjab will end completely.
He demanded that immediate steps should be taken to control the large-scale corruption in various institutions of the Cooperative Department and to take strict action against the responsible officers. In this regard, he has written a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann demanding necessary action.
During the press conference, he said that on July 30, 2024, a memorandum was given to the Registrar Cooperative Societies Punjab mentioning the big scams in the Cooperative Department, but the situation was the same and is the same even today.
He informed that Housefed, Spinfed, and Weavco have completely sunk. At least 68 branches of the cooperative bank are in loss, the Land Mortgage Bank, which is meant for giving agricultural loans to farmers, has been closed for more than two years, Sugarfed is in loss, all sugar mills are on the verge of collapse, Markfed is also in loss and is unable to arrange fertilizers like DAP for farmers on time, and Milkfed has also collapsed, in which 10 out of 12 milk plants in Punjab are in huge loss.
He said that in the meeting held with farmer organizations on March 3, a copy of the memorandum given on July 30, 2024 was given to the Registrar and a demand for investigation was made. But nothing happened. The matter did not stop there, but it is getting worse. After this, some more scams have come to light, in which the audit department caught a scam of Rs 1.11 crore in the Ludhiana Milk Plant.
Justice VC Gupta (Retired Additional District and Sessions Judge) held General Manager Surjit Singh guilty and recommended recovery of Rs 1.11 crore. This officer was also chargesheeted in 2024, but no action was taken even after more than a year has passed.
He told that a strange practice is going on in cooperative milk plants. The General Manager gives illegal orders to the small employee handling the responsibility of the store/milk bar to send desi ghee or other milk products to the house of an officer or a big leader, without any record.
This happens in every plant, resulting in a shortage of stock of Rs 45 lakh in Ludhiana, Rs 10 lakh in Mohali, and Rs 30 lakh in Patiala, which was sent for free. According to the records, the responsibility is of the in-charge of the store/milk bar, but the order is of GM sahab.
He said that a scam of Rs 66 lakh was done in the Ludhiana Milk Plant in 2023-24 and 2024-25 in milk quantity, fat, and SNF. A scam of Rs 10 to 12 crore is hanging in the Mohali Milk Plant by missing the SAP software. The disappearance of 83,000 trays of the Mohali plant resulted in a loss of Rs 1.68 crore and milk worth Rs 5 crore also went missing. The disappearance of white butter stock worth Rs 74 lakh from the Ludhiana milk plant is also not under any investigation.
He said that if the department and the government continue to cover up scams by maintaining silence like this, it will not take long for the cooperative movement in Punjab to come to an end. In a letter to the Chief Minister, he said that you are the guardian of Punjab, your party has always claimed to be staunchly honest. He demanded from the Chief Minister that the culprits should be brought to the dock by taking personal interest and concrete steps should be taken to save and bring the cooperative movement back on track.
On this occasion, General Secretary of Bharatiya Kisan Union Rajewal Pravindar Singh Chalki, Secretary Paramdeep Singh Baidwan, Mohali District President Kirpal Singh Siao, Gurvinder Singh Isroo, Baldeep Singh Sangatpura, and Baldev Singh Chakal were present.