Flood of complaints keeps UP Lokayukta busy

The Lokayukta office received 260 complaints in June and 227 in July. But in August,when Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Minister Awadh Pal Singh had to resign after the Lokayukta held him guilty of land grab and favouring his son and other relatives,the number more than doubled to 481. In September,it shot up to 849.

And by October 10,the Lokayukta has already received 185 more complaints. This month,Chief Minister Mayawati removed Secondary Education Minister Rangnath Mishra and Labour Minister Badshah Singh,the former for owning assets disproportionate to his known sources of income and the latter for land grab. Both have been indicted by the Lokayukta.

Currently,the Lokayukta has begun investigation against six ministers. They are Horticulture Minister Narayan Singh and Culture Minister Subhash Pandey,both accused of land grab; Higher Education Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi who has been accused of awarding accreditation to colleges not fulfilling the criteria; Energy Minister Ramveer Upadhyay who has been accused of buying electricity at higher than the prevalent market rate; Medical Education Minister Lalji Verma who is accused of anomalies in construction and accreditation of medical colleges; and Minister of State for Ambedkar Gram Sabha Development Ratan Lal Ahirwar who is accused of amassing disproportionate assets.

The Lokayukta attributes the sudden increase in complaints to three reasons: One,Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign which triggered a general anti-corruption mood; two,the Chief Minister’s prompt action on his reports and; three,the media reports which forced the government to take action.

Mehrotra said he ensured transparency by making his reports available to media. “Earlier,the complaints,the investigation and also the recommendations were kept secret,so the government could sit on the reports,” he said.

Asked how he would handle the increased inflow of complaints,Mehrotra said he has been demanding more staff from the government and that soon his office would shift to new premises having better infrastructure.

Besides ministers,the Lokayukta has also received complaints against MLAs,mostly of misuse of local area development fund. Among them are BSP MLAs Rizwan Ahmed Khan,Bhagelu Ram,OP Singh,and Mohammad Iqbal; BJP MLA Moti Singh and Congress MLA Pradeep Mathur. There is also a complaint of land grab against BSP MLA from Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar Horam Singh.

Among officials,the Lokayukta has received a complaint against former CEO of Noida Rama Raman,former chairman of Noida Mohinder Singh,OSD of Noida Yashpal Tyagi,and former secretaries of Infrastructure and Industrial Development Department Atul Kumar Gupta and Anoop Mishra. Mishra is now Chief Secretary. The complaint has been lodged by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya,who has alleged that land in Noida was allotted to selected builders in an underhand manner leading to a loss of Rs 8,000 crore.

In addition,the Lokayukta is also probing charges against Principal Secretary (Cane) Kamran Rizvi over the sale of five sugar mills of the UP State Sugar Corporation Limited at throwaway prices.

A complaint is pending against UPPCL chairman Navneet Sehgal,alleging that he was instrumental in purchase of electricity from private power companies at a rate higher than the prevalent market rate.