LUCKNOW: With four months into the office, the Yogi Adityanath government is virtually putting everything done by the erstwhile Akhilesh Yadav government—from appointments through UP Public Service Commission (UPPSC) to construction of graveyards—under the lens.
Last week, Yogi announced a CBI probe into all recruitments in the past five years through the State Public Service Commission (PSC) exams. “Appointments through UPPSC led to a trust deficit among the people as youth of the state feel cheated,” he said in the Assembly.
A few days ago, the Yogi government recommended a CAG audit of expenditures of all industrial development authorities, including Noida, Greater Noida, Yamnua Expressway Development Authority and Ghaziabad Development Authority. The Akhilesh government had been stalling it for five years.
Apart from this, almost all the major development projects started and executed during the SP rule between 2012 and 2017 have been put under the scanner. While the CBI will investigate the Rs 1,513 crore Gomti Riverfront project, probe committees have been set up to find anomalies in the execution of J P National International Centre (JPNIC), International Stadium, Hussainabad Heritage Zone, Janeshwar Mishra Park and C G City, all in Lucknow.
Preliminary probes have found that the costs of these projects were escalated several times. The projects are still incomplete even after the entire budget for them was exhausted and crores of rupees over and above the sanctioned budget were spent.
The Gomti Riverfront project was started with a budget of Rs 656 crore in 2014, but the cost was revised to Rs 1,513 crore and again to Rs 2,413 crore. Immediately after taking over, Yogi found that even 50 per cent work had not been completed, while over 90 per cent of the budget had been spent.
He ordered a judicial probe under a former High Court judge, who submitted the report well before the 45-day deadline, indicting two former chief secretaries and a host of senior engineers and officers of the irrigation department, the executing agency. The role of many high and mighty, including then irrigation minister and Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav, may also come on CBI radar.
A special audit has been ordered after a preliminary probe found that the entire fund of Rs 864 crore Jai Prakash Narayan International Centre, Rs 872 crore C G City, Rs 355 crore (which reached Rs 396-crore) Jansewhar Mishra Park and Rs 153-crore (Rs 264 crore already spent) beautification project of the Hussianbad Heritage zone was spent without completion. Interestingly, Rs 9 crore was spent on just catching snakes in Janeshwar Mishra Park, says a urban planning department official.
Some other schemes of the Akhilesh government facing a probe are the Delhi-Saharanpur-Yamunotri highway project, land aquisition for Agra-Lucknow Expressway, Yash Bharti awards, distribution of ration cards, submitting fake fix deposits to get PWD contracts in Etah, irregularities in implementation of JNNURM by UP Jal Nigam, Sachal Palna Grah, etc.
Yogi has also ordered a probe into a scheme announced by the Akhilesh government for construction of boundary walls around burial grounds to guard against encroachments. Around Rs 1,300 crore was spent on building these walls. The government has formed a three-member inquiry committee headed by civil aviation special secretary Suryapal Gangwar to conduct the probe.
The BJP government also dissolved the Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards constituted during the SP government allegedly comprising of its loyalists. Although the Allahabad High Court stayed the dissolution, the government has recommended a CBI probe into alleged anomalies and financial irregularities running into several thousand crores of rupees in both the boards. The total value of Waqf properties, as per a conservative estimate, is around Rs 70,000 crore.