A big fraud is being committed on the public exchequer by the bureaucracy in Punjab by registering societies under the Societies Registration Act to discharge the functions that are otherwise within the domain of the State Government. The motivation for forming such unlawful societies, as these four Councils are, is to take them out of the purview of the Punjab Financial Rules and other government rules & regulations. Not only that, by registering these special purpose vehicles as societies, their functioning has been taken out of the scrutiny of government auditors i.e. Accountant General despite their being commitment of sizeable public funds. Further, such societies are found to have been violating different laws because of poor accounting and legal knowledge at their disposal. Not only in this Citizens’ Investigation but in the earlier Citizens’ Investigations conducted by the Petitioners, the officers and officials, including senior IAS officers, managing these societies have been found to be dictatorially misdirecting the societies as per their whims and fancies as if these were their personal fiefdoms because of absolute lack of checks and balances. Even the bureaucrats at the top echelons, who are entrusted the task of supervising their subordinates, have invariably been found to be in deep slumber. After the formation of these societies, the State Government is found to have just turned a blind eye towards its illegitimate creations, as these Societies are, thereby leaving these at the mercy of the self-serving managers.

The State of Punjab formed four “special purpose vehicles”, namely the `Council for Citrus & Agri Juicing in Punjab’, the `Council for Value Added Horticulture in Punjab’, the `Organic Farming Council of Punjab’ & the `Viticulture Council of Punjab’ (hereinafter collectively referred to as “Farm Councils’) in February, 2006 with the lofty objectives of diversification of agriculture in Punjab in order to bring the farmer out of the wh