Punjab Vigilance Chief S.P.S. Parmar Suspended In Driving Licence Scam

Chandigarh: Punjab government on Friday suspended vigilance bureau (VB) chief S P S Parmar in an alleged scam related to driving licences. Besides Parmar, assistant inspector general of police (AIG), Harpreet Singh and a senior superintendent of police (SSP) Swarandeep Singh have also been suspended.

It is for the first time that the state government has suspended an officer of a rank of additional director general of police (ADGP) and who also served as the director of the VB, in the wake of the seriousness of the alleged scam; Parmar was appointed as VB chief on March 26, last, replacing Nageshwara Rao. Parmar was also heading a special investigation team (SIT) probing into the recent infamous case of assault on the serving Amry Col Bath by a group of Punjab police personnel in Patiala.

For record, the alleged scam pertains to issuance of the driving licences without taking tests or without following the rules and norms in the state. Allegations are that such licences were issued in lieu of bribes given to officials directly or through their ``agents’’, by changing the records. There were also allegations that in several cases the applicants, who apparently did not know driving well or not at all, got the tests cleared by sending some other persons in their place.

While the scam involved several officials of regional transport offices (RTOs), their ``agents’’, middlemen and the applicants, the vigilance bureau officers have been suspended for their failure to take appropriate action despite complete knowledge of the scam and its gravity. There were also allegations that there were attempts to save the culprits.

Moreover, literally hundreds of applicants felt frustrated and had to make rounds of the RTO centres because of the ongoing controversy, because of which their tests could not be conducted at the RTOs which kept its gates closed.

news