State Information Commissioner Hafiz Usman has taken exception to the inaction of senior Sports Department officials of the and Principal Secretary (Sports) Anita Bhatnagar Jain, for ignoring his recommendation on acting against former Principal and other officials of Guru Govind Singh Sports College in lucknow.
``The Principal Secretary (Sports) had assured me of prompt action against the guilty after a probe into irregularities in Sports College, lucknow. Her representative sought two months to act which never happened even after considerable time,” said the SIC when contacted on Thurday afternoon.
Usman asserted, “I have told the officials that if no action was taken within a month, then I would urge Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to get the culprits punished.”
The SIC expressed surprise that so far only departmental proceedings have been intiated against the officials when they should have been suspended, as two separate probes indicted them for corrupt practices.
Once known for producing world class Hockey players, Guru Govind Singh Sports College in the last few years has been mired in irregular appointments, promotions flouting norms, admitting more students than sanctioned strength, siphoning of huge sum through fees and government facilities.
After an RTI application, the SIC had asked Sports Director Dr RP Singh to probe the charges. The probe report submitted pointed that Ravi Saxena was appointed as clerk in 1977 on ad hoc basis and was given post of account clerk also temporarily in 1978. While the minimum qualification for account clerk is Bachelor in Commerce, Saxena had passed Intermediate with Arts.
In January 1984, the Sports Directorate renamed account clerk as Assistant Accountant and Saxena was again posted violating the norms. He was again promoted as Accountant in 1990 defying all rules and ignoring his qualification. Ironically, no Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meet was called which was mandatory.
Besides, the probe pointed that teachers were illegally appointed on `honorarium’. Direct appointments were made without consent of Sports Directorate or the government on `honorarium’.
Dr RP Singh said in his report that the College did not even advertise about vacancies. Interestingly, the then principal Anil Kumar Banudha, who was Joint Director in Sports Directorate and looked after appointment of teachers brazenly chose to violate rules during recruitment.
In another case, the Principal admitted additional students much above the sanctioned strength in the College without official consent. The fees collected from these students wnever found its way to the official account.
The sanctioned strength of students in the Sport College was 320 students in 1975 which was increased to 345 in 2007. Against it, the authorities admitted 376 students in 2012-13 session, 436 students in 2013-14 and 515 students in 2014-15. Besides, the fees of 15 students was never deposited in the college accounts in 2012-13 and that of 26 students in 2013-14. This further peaked to 171 students in the current session. The College brass failed to show any order or direction on basis of which they admitted extra students.
During the period in which additional students were admitted through back door and teachers were illegaly appointed, the Anil Kumar Banudha remained the Principal of Sports College, lucknow.
Dr RP Singh recommended strict action against Banudha for being primarily responsible for the irregularities and also a departmental probe. Subsequently, the SIC recommended action to Principal Secretary (Sports) Anita Bhatnagar Jain, who did virtually nothing so far against the guilty officials.
