By IANS
Lucknow : As many as 23 officials of the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA), including its former vice chairman, are in the dock for alleged large-scale irregularities in allotment of plots and payments against fake billing.
According to official sources, criminal cases have been registered against LDA’s former vice chairman B.N. Singh, former secretary R.B. Yadav, chief engineer D.R. Yadav, financial controller Mohan Yadav and 19 others for alleged financial bungling during the regime of former chief minister Mulayam Singh, who was voted out of power in May.
Over a dozen contractors are also facing the music because they allegedly raised fake bills.
This follows an inquiry carried out by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Shankar Pandey, who indicted Singh and his associates for making payments of millions of rupees against fake documents.
“This is only a tip of the iceberg,” remarked Pandey, who is known to be a no-nonsense hard taskmaster.
He said: “As many as 1,100 files were under scrutiny and each file appears to be a can of worms, exposing major irregularities not only in allotments but also in approval of building plans, award of contracts, payments, etc.”
His report clearly points out that undue payments were made against various construction jobs that were, in fact, never undertaken.
The officials have been booked for “embezzlement of government funds, making false entries in government records, fraud and criminal conspiracy besides certain provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act”.