In a major decision to expose corruption in projects taken up during Samajwadi Party’s regime, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday ordered a judicial probe into irregularities committed in the Gomti Riverfront Project.
The probe will be made by a committee headed by a retired High Court judge and the findings whould be placed before the Chief Minister within 45 days. Yogi directed Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to constitute the committee so that the probe could be initiated.
The project came under Yogi’s scrutiny after he visited the site last Monday and found that a lot of funds and time had been misused in carrying out the project. Earlier the progress of the project had raised many a eyebrows and the BJP had assured to look into the irregularities committed if it came to power after the Assembly polls.
On Saturday, Yogi summoned senior officials associated with Gomti Riverfront and Development project at his Secretariat Annexe office and sought to know about the colossal waste of money, inordinate delay in completing the project, apathy towards cleaning the Gomti river etc. He was accompanied by ministers Suresh Khanna and Ashutosh Tandon.
Dissatisfied with the officials’ reply, Yogi later ordered a probe into the matter by a retired High Court judge and directed that the findings be submitted to him within 45 days.
This will be the first major step of the new Chief Minister towards weeding out corruption and expose graft and irregularities committed in completion of any major project taken up by the Akhilesh regime.
On Monday last, Yogi inspected the Riverfront prroject for over an hour and said ”It is a show of inefficiency of the officials and waste of money and time as only 60 precent work has been completed.”
Yogi seeed cut up with the fact that of the Rs 1500 crore earmarked, Rs 1433 crore had already been given to the executing agency which already spent Rs 1427 crore without completing the project. The executing department has now been asking for an additional Rs. 1500 crore.
Yogi seemed irked with the delay in construction and continuous increase in the cost. During the visit, the ChiefMinister also pulled up Irrigation department engineer PK Singh.
Charging the previous government ofnot being serious about cleanliness of Gomti river, the CM also ordered that the project will be merged with the Centre’s initiative of scheme ‘Namami Gange’.
The Chief Minister also directed officials to withdraw ration cards with Akhilesh Yadav’s photograph and issue fresh ones in their place.
It may be mentioned that just ahead of Assembly elections, Akhilesh Yadav government got printed several lakhs of ration cards in a hurry. About 60 lakh such ration cards having Akhilesh’s photographs could not be distributed. Now, Yogi Adityanath government has decided to roll back those ration cards.
The State government will not distribute the some 60 lakh ration cards printed by the Akhilesh Yadav government. These ration cards have photograph of the then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. But, the Yogi’s government has decided to roll back all the ration cards having photographs of Akhilesh Yadav.
The ration cards could not be distributed as Model Code of Conduct came into force before the Akhilesh government could give away to the beneficiaries.
Beside Akhilesh’s photograph, the ration cards have the red and green colours of Samajwadi Party’s flag. The UP government has also decided to cancel about 3.4 crore similar ration cards, which were distributed before the Election Commission announced poll dates.
Now, the Yogi government is planning to bring Aadhaar-linked ration cards in Uttar Pradesh. These ration cards will have barcode. The new ration cards will reportedly be smart cards having silicon chips. The new ration card will have all the details of the beneficiary. Till the new cards are made and distributed, the provisions will be given to the beneficiaries through paper-slips.
Meanwhile, Yogi also asked that the budgetary allocations for government schemes should be fully utilised for benefit of the people. ``Maximum use of budgetary sanctioned for government projects should be untilisted fully in the welfare of public”, asserted Yogi while reviewing the progress here with his ministerial colleagues and senior officers on Saturday morning. He said that the government will not tolerate misuse of a single penny. ``The officers should also finish the projects within the stipulated time”, he further directed asking Party MPs, legislators and senior officers to make regular monitoring of the projects to ensure that no wastage of public money could be made.
Yogi said that state government will also follow the guidelines of Centre to check corruption and will see that no tainted officials will be posted on key positions and that everyone is committed to give ``Good Governance’ to the people of the State. He said that all the files should be proper listed, and necessary action must be taken within three days and it should be also ensured that the file reached back to the ministry within 7 working days.
Meanwhile Yogi also discussed water projects related to Bundelkhand region which is witnessing drought for last several years. He asked the officers to take necessary steps so that Bundelkhand will not face any water shortage in the coming days, both for humans as well as for cattle and birds. He claimed that stern action will be taken is he heard of water shortage anywhere in the State particularly Bundelkhand region. He asked the officers to monitor the on-going irrigation projects in Bundelkhand and to get it completed it in time. The officers informed Yogi that besides several irrigation projects are already underway, the region also had 29 water reservoirs which will help to meet out water requirement in the area. Yogi later also directed the officials of Irrigation Department to make all necessary steps to avert flood anywhere in the state particularly in the Purvanchal Region where several families rendered homeless due to floods every year.
During the review meeting, Yogi also directed the officials to chalk out strategy for Ardh Kumbh in Allahabad to be organised in 2019. He asked to make Ganga pollution free so that no one would face problem, besides directing them to complete the Center’s project Namami Gange. Yogi asked the officials to make phase wise shifting of leather industries of Kanpur and Kannauj to check pollution in the Ganga river. He also asked the officials to ensure that water from nullah should not fall directly in the river without making treatment. He also directed to carry out disilting exercise in rivers to make them pollution free.