Yogi govt is corrupt, say BJP legislators

On Thursday, Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar released a list of eight officers including three policemen whose services were terminated because of their involvement in corruption. With this news, the government tried to project itself as a government that is transparent and believes in corruption-free governance. The claims were however countered not by the opposition but by BJP lawmakers who said that corruption prevailed in functioning of the government.

Around half a dozen legislators of the ruling party have told senior leaders including ministers during various co-ordination committee meetings that officers in the Yogi regime are as corrupt as they were in the regime of Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party.

“Corruption level is very high. Work in all the government departments are driven by ‘suvidha shulk’ (bribe). It is a fact that if you do not pay bribe to clerks and officers, the file will not move," the MLAs said.

Harvinder ‘Romi’ Sahni, MLA from Pallia in Lakhimpur Khori, said that corruption prevailed in all departments in Khiri. Be it police or health and education or rural development, people have to to pay bribe to get their work done.

“Situation in Yogi raj is no better than that during the Akhilesh and Mayawati regime,” he said in his feedback during co-ordination committee meeting which was called to highlight coordination between government and the party.

Such committees are the brain child of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. These are district-based committees headed by the minister-in-charge of that district. The lawmakers are asked to give their feedback about the government’s performance with focus on coordination between party and government.

These meetings took place a fortnight back and the feedback was submitted to the Chief Minister and the state president of the party Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey.

In a meeting, headed by Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Chetan Chauhan. legislator of Charthawal Assembly constituency in Muzaffarnagar district, Vijay Kashauyap, said that the police in his district was very corrupt. “People are not getting redressal in police stations,” he said.

Ramesh Chandra Mishra, legislator from Badlapur in Jaunpur district, said that Rural Development Officer, Gram Panchayat Officer and police officers in many police stations in the district were posted for over 5 years. They were insensitive towards the plight of the people and as a result. government schemes were not delivering the desired results.

Rajani Kant Mani Tripathi, BJP lawmaker from Kushinagar district, highlighted the prevailing power crisis in his district. He said the power supply was irregular. He also said that despite assurance of 18 hour power supply in villages, villages in the district barely got four to five hours of supply.

“In the last one week, 23 transformers have conked off and it took 20 to 25 days to replace the transformers. The government claims transformers are replaced within 48 hours but this is not the case,” he told committee members.