Yogi Adityanath dismisses, suspends senior UP officials over corruption charges

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday dismissed the additional commissioner of Meerut and suspended an additional district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar on charges of corruption, officials said on Tuesday.

Sources said while the suspension of errant officials is nothing new, the dismissal of a provincial civil services officer from service by any government has come after a gap of four years.

Randhir Singh Duhan, a PCS officer of 1991 batch, was dismissed by the government after he was indicted in an inquiry report for allegedly ordering the auction of 467 bighas of enemy property land when he was posted as ADM (land acquisition) in Shamli district in 2012-2013.

According to the report submitted by Saharanpur commissioner Tanvir Zafar Ali, Duhan allowed the auction of the land despite an embargo on the sale of the enemy property.

Duhan’s dismissal comes barely a month after he exposed the alleged involvement of officials, including two district magistrates and an additional district magistrate, in a land scam in Meerut-Delhi Expressway – the dream project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Duhan told the Hindustan Times the action against him was “mischievous” and added that pressure was mounted on him to brush the land scam under the carpet.

“I have been an army officer and can’t even think of corruption. It (the action) was a reward for my honesty. I dared to expose the nexus and refused to budge under pressure,” he said.

Additional district magistrate (finance and revenue) in Gautam Buddh Nagar Ghanshyam Singh was suspended for procuring a Rs 7-crore compensation for himself by allegedly manipulating records related to land acquisition for the Meerut-Delhi Expressway project.

The state government ordered an inquiry into the matter and the probe report, submitted by divisional commissioner Prabhat Kumar on October 4, found Singh guilty. The report said Singh purchased a land parcel from farmers at a lower rate in his son’s name in 2012 when land was being acquired for the development of the expressway.

His son then gave an application for the payment of enhanced compensation. The ADM is said to have misused his position in getting the compensation rate raised from Rs 617 per square metre to Rs 6,500 per square metre causing a loss of Rs 7 crore to the National Highway Authority of India, the probe report said.

On October 23, Adityanath suspended two police officers in Hamirpur for their alleged involvement in illegal mining.

He also suspended 12 officials, including additional director (administration) Rajendra Singh, for alleged irregularities in the allotment of the performance grant to panchayats recently.

Sources in the government said many more heads were expected to roll with the chief minister adopting a zero-tolerance approach to corruption.