As anticipated, the State Government has revoked the suspension of Indian Administration Services (IAS) officer Chandresh Kumar Yadav. He had been suspended in the National Highway ( NH)-74 land acquisition and disbursal of compensation scam on September 11. In an order issued on Wednesday, the additional chief secretary Radha Raturi said that the suspension of the Yadav has been conditionally revoked on the order of the Governor. The order mentions that after suspension, a charge sheet against Yadav was filed on September 28.
On his part, the officer had submitted a detailed explanation regarding the charges levelled against him to the State Government on September 17 and based on it, the suspension order of Yadav has been revoked.
However, the revoking of suspension of the officer would remain conditional. In the order, the ACS has clearly said that revoking of suspension would not affect in any way the ongoing administrative inquiry into the matter. After revoking of suspension, the State administration is now expected to hand over some responsibilities to the IAS officer.
Notably, the multi-core NH-74 scam had occurred during the years 2011 to 2016 when the work on widening the Haridwar-Bareilly National Highway (NH–74) was underway. As per the allegation, many times more compensation was provided to the farmers whose lands were acquired. The scam had been detected first by then Kumaon commissioner D Senthil Pandian after which the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government had ordered a special investigation team (SIT) headed by then Senior Superintendent of Police of Udham Singh Nagar Sadanand Date. The SIT had arrested two dozen officers and employees of revenue and administration and sent them to jail in connection with the scam.
On the basis of inquiry by the SIT, the Trivendra Singh Rawat Government had initiated a bold move of suspending two IAS officers-Pankaj Kumar Pandey and Chandresh Kumar Yadav-for their questionable role as arbitrators of land acquisition and compensation for NH-74 when both of them were the District Magistrates of Udham Singh Nagar district.