Under fire from multiple quarters over the deteriortating law and order condition in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath govt recieved a breather in the state legislative assembly as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) tabled a report indicting the Samajwadi Party for financial irregularities.
The CAG report has pointed towards grave irregularities pertaining to mining operations that caused huge financial loss to the exchequer during the Samajwadi Party(SP) regime led by Akhilesh Yadav.
According to the report, the state’s exchequer incurred losses to the tune of Rs 1,000 cr due to illegal and unauthorised mining operations in the state during Akhilesh’s tenure.
The over 200-page CAG report on revenue sector for 2015-16 was tabled in the UP assembly on Thursday.
CAG also unearthed other losses incurred due to impropriety and laxity in government departments. These departments comprised irrigation, public works department (PWD), food and drug administration (FDA), police, solid waste management and education, among others.
The irrigation department, for example, reportedly supplied water to various thermal power projects without royalty, leading to a revenue loss of over Rs 440 crore.
Citing another instance of grave financial irregularity, CAG said that the former SP government had spent Rs 15 crore in organising events acroos the state to distribute unemployment doles amounting to Rs 20 crore.
In the past few wekks, the two-month old Yogi government has come under the Opposition's attack over the alleged deteriorating law and order situation. CM Adityanath, has, however, also sought a year’s time to improve governance to lower incidences of crime in the state. The Yogi govt, on its part, has levelled counter allegations against former ruling party SP saying that the BJP inherited a bad law and order machinery and is making efforts to improve the situation in this regard.
A spate of murders across the state has put a question mark over the BJP-rule state's tall claims of improving law and order in the region.
Recently, two jewellers were brazenly shot dead inside a shop in Mathura district and the motorcycle-borne criminals managed to escape unchallenged. They are still at large and local traders have shut their establishments in protest.
On Wednesday, a Karanataka-cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Anurag Tiwari was found dead outside the state guest house in Lucknow. The place of the incident is less than a kilometre from the UP Director General Police (DGP) office.
There have also been recurring incidents of cast-based violence in western UP districts in the past few weeks that have cast a shadow on talks of improved law and order situation under the Yogi government.