LUCKNOW: The controversy over the transfers and postings in Public Works Department (PWD) of UP government leading to removal of Cabinet minister Jitin Prasada’s OSD and suspension of five other officials of the department by the Chief Minister office is far from over.
As per the highly-placed sources, the transfers of around 59 engineers are likely to be cancelled as they were done allegedly by flouting the UP government’s transfer policy norms.
“A few more heads likely to roll as irregularities are coming out in open. While the engineers post at one place for the last 10 years have not been shifted, those who were transferred a few months back have been shifted to a new place again,” said an informed source.
It may be recalled that the office of CM Yogi Adityanath cracked the whip on the PWD officials removing Jitin Prasada’s OSD Anil Kumar Pandey on July 18 over his alleged role in irregularities including involvement of money in transfer and posting of engineers. It was followed by the suspension of five senior officers of the department in the matter on July 20.
The CMO had set up a two-member high-level committee comprising Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) Manoj Kumar Singh and Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, Devesh Chaturdvedi, to look into the irregularities in transfer and postings in PWD and the probe report had indicated anomalies. However, further analysis of the report established that transfer of 59 officers of Group A and B should have been approved by the Chief Minister and the PWD minister which was not done. All those 59 postings would be cancelled.
Moreover, the committee report had also recommended a thorough probe into the incidents of attachment of the engineers to PWD headquarter during the last one year. “The report has also recommended to fix the responsibility of those officers who had issued faulty orders to attach engineers to headquarter,” said a senior official.
The probe report had claimed that at least 26 officers of the level of executive engineers or above were not shifted from their current posting despite being at one place for over three years. Of those 26, at least a dozen engineers have been at one place for the last 10 years, said a source.
On the contrary, around 31 officers, shifted in the current transfer season, were transferred just a few months back. The notification of the transfer order of such officers does neither refer to any complaint or irregularity on their part nor the reason for shifting them within months of their previous posting.
It was also been noted that officers in huge number had been attached with the headquarter without an assignment while some of the officers were looking after two or more divisions simultaneously.
The confidential report also highlighted the fact that a superintending engineer, who got retired on June 30, had issued the transfer order of assistant engineers in back date.
The report also talked about a number of corrections carried out at the level of PWD minister’s office in transfer proposals presented by the head of department and division concerned. Even more, the decision on the transfer of Bridge Corporation’s Managing Director was taken by the PWD minister without taking the CMO into confidence, the probe report claimed.