Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan’s letter to Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani, asking him to withdraw funds meant for Haj House in Ghaziabad, has brought to fore the lack of communication between senior ministers and the bureaucracy and has given Opposition parties an opportunity to slam the Akhilesh Yadav Government.
“If a senior minister like Mohammad Azam Khan is fed up with the system and writes a letter to the Chief Secretary to express his annoyance and asks him to withdraw funds for Haj House in Ghaziabad, it shows how this Government works,” Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said in a statement issued here on Thursday.
The BJP leader said that Azam Khan was one of the most powerful ministers in the Uttar Pradesh Government, in fact, the second most powerful minister after Shivpal Singh Yadav, and if he was annoyed with the working of the Finance department it was anyone’s guess how frustrated the common man was in the Samajwadi Party rule.
In his letter to the Chief Secretary, Khan has complained about the delay in release of funds for the Haj House to be constructed in Ghaziabad. Khan has also mentioned in the letter that he had written a letter to the Finance Department in this regard but did not get any response. A source in the Finance Department told ‘The Pioneer’ that objection was raised only to diversion of funds from lucknow’s Haj House to Ghaziabad. The source said the department had also questioned the need to have a Haj House in Ghaziabad when one already exists in lucknow.
“Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav should answer how people can feel safe when a minister is dejected with the working of his Government. Azam Khan has said what the Opposition parties have been saying for long. The Government has not only failed the people but also its ministers,” Pathak said.