UP suspends nine over bungling

 The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday suspended nine engineers and stopped the pension of five retired officials of the irrigation department for alleged irregularities in the implementation of Bansagar multi-purpose river valley project.

After inspecting the project, state irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav also ordered an inquiry by the economic offences wing into the alleged financial irregularities in the project.

“It has been decided to suspend nine engineers, including a chief engineer, and stop pension of five retired officials for irregularities in implementation of Bansagar project,” Yadav said.

Noting that there have been “irregularities” in the project, including the “financial ones”, Yadav said “stern action will be taken against the officials involved in anomalies”.

Shortage

When asked wether the then irrigation minister of the state would be brought under the probe net, Shivpal said the inquiry has started and “the result will come out soon”.

Claiming that there was no shortage of water and Madhya Pradesh was already taking benefit of the scheme, Yadav said, “not a single drop of water” was received by UP despite spending over Rs 1,200 crore in last five years.

Yadav said the government has resolved to complete the project within a year’s time, for which the state would release Rs 600 crore.

The project was started with an objective of providing irrigation facility to one lakh hectares of land in Allahabad and 70,000 hectares in Mirzapur district, Yadav said.