A special thanks to Shri Yogi Adityanath ji, who has struck on a significant note at the anarchic, and the corrupt bureaucracy of Uttar Pradesh, politically groomed under the previous Samajwadi Party by suspending 60 corrupt officers with immediate effect, who were in service even after having retired during the previous socialist regime of the Samajwadi Party. Among these 60 officers, perhaps the most powerful and most controversial officer was SP Singh, who was promoted from the Provincial Civil Service to the Indian Administrative Service. SP Singh retired on 28th February 2013, yet flouting all rules and conventions, for the past 3 years, he was working under the same minister, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, as OSD & Official Secretary for the Urban Development, Minorities Welfare, Urban Employment & Department of Poverty Alleviation.
Now that the Samajwadi Party government has expired, the skeletons from the cupboard of Azam Khan and his secretary SP Singh are slowly, but steadily falling out.
The illegal slaughterhouses that have flooded the Uttar Pradesh in the last 5 years owe their allegiance to these both dignitaries. Under urban development’s purview comes the municipal corporations and municipal councils, where the officers of their choice and taste had happily turned a blind eye towards the sins of their political masters or they were themselves included in the loot carried out in the name of development.
Interestingly, the most curious incident occurred in Lucknow itself, where during the election itself, a waste management institution, ‘Jyoti Envirotech’, which had collaborated with CNDS and Lucknow Municipal Corporation under the PPP [Public Private Partnership Model], was removed to make way for a new company ‘Eco Green Energy’. This company is owned by RK Agarwal, who previously worked under ‘A2Z Company’, which had collaborated with Jindal Group for the waste management of three cities in UP, but had escaped on the failure of their job. The concerned departments are still investigating against this company.
With gross financial imbalance under this complete case, there is an indication of a huge fraud. On one side on 30th April 2016, Lucknow Municipal Corporation provides a commercial operation date to Jyoti Envirotech and relating to a PIL on Dengue, and replying to it in October 2016, the Municipal Commissioner files an affidavit in the same respect in the High Court, agreeing to the task assigned to Jyoti Envirotech, and on the same side, the affidavit points out some imperfections, thereby transferring the contract with Jyoti Envirotech to somebody else. An interesting point about the same case is that the punch list [a detailed list of incomplete projects and limitations of the project] given with the commercial operative date certificate does not match with the punchlist given with the affidavit, and the punch list given with the preliminary elimination doesn’t match at all with the punch lists mentioned before.
What is fishy in the entire situation, is the complete flouting of guidelines as sanctioned by the Election Commission during the elections itself in selecting ‘Eco Green Energy’, without any screening or selection process being conducted, as is the norm, whose financial position is under the wraps, and after the election results were out on the 11th of March, the back date for the same application is dated 10th of March, signed by the Municipal Commissioner, emailed by 14th of March, dispatched by Speed Post on 16th of March. With this post, I would like to make Honb. CM Yogi Adityanath ji and Urban Development Minister Shri Suresh Khanna ji aware of this matter, and would humbly request them to carry a proper investigation of the entire matter, and carry out the required proceedings against the accused Urban Development Department and Lucknow Municipal Corporation involved, so that in future, the shadow of corruption doesn’t gobble up the projects of Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities, as is the vision of our PM Narendra Modi.
Based on Pushker Awasthi’s investigative report
