Akhilesh Yadav not in favour of CM's office under Lokayukta

The Samajwadi Party government appeared to have gone back on an election promise with Utter Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday expressing his opposition to the inclusion of the chief minister’s office under the ambit of the Lokayukta.

“We want a strong Lokayukta but we are not in favour of bringing the chief minister under its ambit,” Yadav told reporters.

The SP’s office had in its election manifesto promised that if voted to power, it would go for a strong Lokayukta in the state to fight corruption.
A committee, which had been formed under the chairmanship of the current Loka-
yukta, Justice (retd) N K Mehrotra, had in its report called for bringing the CM’s office under its ambit.

“I have not  yet gone through the  committee’s report,” Yadav said.  The committee, in its report, has suggested appointing three additional Upa-Lokayuktas besides giving the Lokayukta’s office more power. The committee had been formed following an initiative taken by Akhilesh himself.

Earlier the CM had gone back on his promise that he would not include anyone in his cabinet with a dubious past. But, he later inducted Raghuraj pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, against whom several criminal cases were registered.