Ludhiana: Explanation sought from registrar over ‘selective’ audits of Verka plants

Taking note of a complaint of caste discrimination, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has asked the Punjab co-operative societies registrar to submit an explanation within 15 days regarding alleged ‘selective’ audits of Verka milk plants.

The action comes after one Surjit Singh Bhadour, currently posted as general manager at Milkfed Verka, Patiala and Khanna, alleged he was being targeted as he belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community. In his complaint, he alleged that the Punjab co-operative department has ordered audits of his tenure at five plants, Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Faridkot and Khanna. He claimed that the audit is in violation of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961.

Despite repeated attempts and text messages, Milkfed managing director Rahul Gupta was not available for comments.

Bhadour alleged no irregularities were found at these plants during regular audits. He claimed the registrar of cooperative societies had approved the special audit based on a proposal from the audit department (co-operative societies) to target him.

In the complaint, he claimed the department has deployed more than 20 employees for the special audit and it was causing financial loss to the state. Bhadour alleged caste discrimination by senior officials of the cooperative and audit departments. The complainant said he has over 20 years of blemish-free service and the special audit was being used as a tool to find faults in his work from the last five years.