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Tribune News Service
Vishav Bharti
Chandigarh, July 27
The rich, who “gobbled up” the rooftop solar power subsidy meant for the poor, are set to face the music as the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) has deputed staff to remove and get back the solar panels from the ineligible beneficiaries.
1,200 houses got solar panels worth Rs 16 cr
An ambitious Rs 100 crore project was brought to Bathinda by former Finance Minister Manpreet Badal in December last year. Under the project, 1 kW solar power panels were to be installed on the rooftop of 9,000 households. The scheme was meant for families living below the poverty line and the Scheduled Castes. To execute the project, PEDA had given the contract to a private company, which was given a list of beneficiaries by the local administration. Sources said a large number of ineligible beneficiaries, including the rich, families living above the poverty line and those belonging to the general category, were given the benefit of the scheme.
Now, the entire exercise, which started just before the Assembly elections, has raised a big question over the functioning of the local administration, which provided the list of the beneficiaries. The company deputed by PEDA has spent around Rs 16 crore on the scheme and has installed solar power panels on around 1,200 houses. The sources said around two months ago, somebody blew the whistle stating that a large number of beneficiaries were neither SCs nor BPL.
Now, the agency has swung into action and a team of three employees from the head office in Chandigarh has been deputed to remove the panels from the houses of the ineligible beneficiaries.
Sumeet Jarangal, Chief Executive Officer, PEDA, said they were in the process of “weeding out” the ineligible beneficiaries. He confirmed that they had shelved the project and had returned the unspent amount of around Rs 80 crore to the Finance Department.
In a Facebook post on January 17, Manpreet Badal called it “a first-of-its-kind pilot project in Punjab” to install solar panels free of cost for the needy in Bathinda city. He had claimed that 12,934 solar panels of 1 kW were being installed in the first phase.
ex-FM had brought in Rs 100-cr project for Bathinda
- Rs 100 cr project brought to Bathinda by former Finance Minister Manpreet Badal
- 1 kW solar power panels were to be installed on the rooftop of 9,000 households
- Scheme was for BPL, SC families, but others benefited from it
#solar energy
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