Barely a day after the Allahabad High Court gave a reprieve to former UP Chief Minister Mayawati in the sensational
Taj Heritage Corridor (THC) case, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday revealed that he had ordered the Lokayukta to probe the controversial sale of the 21 sugar mills by the erstwhile BSP administration.
And the move by the SP Government will clearly turn the heat on the BSP chief and the key members of her erstwhile Cabinet as well as the top officials.
Actually, the previous BSP Government had sold the sugar mills to various parties in a questionable manner and had also grossly undervalued the assets and the land belonging to the mills.
In fact, the SP had made the issue one of its chief planks during the campaigning for the Assembly polls. And the party had promised to probe the matter and bring the guilty to justice if it came to power in the state.
However,after the SP formed the government,the party put the issue on the backburner, which led to rumblings among its rank and file.
But Akhilesh literally took everyone by surprise on Tuesday when he announced that the Lokayukta had been asked to take over the probe.
It is widely believed that if the issue were to be investigated properly, the role of several top IAS officials and the former CM’s office could come under a cloud.