Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has suspended two senior officials of the forest department for dereliction of duty including mis-management in payment of tendu leaves dues and ordered strict action against them.
The two officers who have faced the axe are: Managing Director, Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation Umendra and the then MD Tendu leaves Atibal Singh. He said that Government had received a complaint that 51,088 tendu leaves farmers were not paid their remuneration. Besides, no attempt was made to open bank accounts of over 6500 tendu leave workers.
These officials were also charged with dereliction of duty which led to less production of tendu leaves this year, Yadav said in a statement issued here. Forest officials said that 285775 bags of tendu leaves were produced in 2012 while this year only 200000 bags were produced. Chief Minister said that these officials should be taken to task for their apathy towards work that led to loss to Government exchequer.