District Magistrates (DM) appointed to the districts of Gonda and Fatehpur were suspended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday, following allegations of illegal mining and financial irregularities against them:
UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath suspends District Magistrates of Fatehpur and Gonda over complaints of illegal mining and financial irregularities.
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 7, 2018
As per a PTI report, CM Yogi took a serious note the irregularities to suspend the DM’s named Prashant Kumar and JB Singh. A News18 report also claims that there were allegations of corruption against these officials.
In Fatehpur, which was being officiated by Kumar, it was noted that there was an irregularity in wheat purchase. As per a food department inspection, there was zero wheat purchase from 13 May to 31 May for no cited reason. Thus the food commissioner ordered the lodging of FIRs against officials for not distributing tokens to farmers which affected the process.
The report claims that in Gonda too irregularities were found in the food distribution process, with the DM being found guilty of improper control over the process. Besides Singh, district supply officer Rajiv Kumar and district food marketing officer Ajay Vikram Singh too were suspended by the state administration.
An IANS report adds to the matter by claiming that, Gonda’s district magistrate was also punished for failing to control illegal mining in his region. The report also claims that IAS officer Balkar Singh accused of various irregularities, was removed from the post of Director Mining department and shifted to Disabled welfare.
The report quotes a close aide of the Chief Minister as saying that, Yogi is in no mood to go soft against those not following the government line and has also got the green signal from the party leadership to act tough.
