By IANS,
Lucknow : Four officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 13 other officials, allegedly involved in the Rs.4,721 crore (Rs.47.21 billion / $987 million) land allotment scam in Noida, were suspended Monday, an official said.
These officials include three former chief executive officers who headed the area development authority during 2006-07.
Additional cabinet secretary V.S. Pandey identified the officers as Deo Datt, Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjeev Saran, besides Ravindra K. Nair, who has been posted as additional CEO during the period of the scam.
Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officer C.P. Singh, who then held the position of deputy CEO, was also suspended. Among the others were former chief town and country planner S.K. Jamal, former chief finance officer S.C. Singh and some more officials and engineers.
“The scam related to allotment of lucrative hotel plots to certain parties in utter violation of the rules and norms,” Pandey told IANS Monday, terming it as “one of the biggest ever land scams in the state.”
The scam was responsible for causing the state a whopping loss of Rs.4,721 crore, he said, adding all allotments were cancelled as soon as the irregularities were detected.
While the bungling carried out by officials during the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government was brought to light shortly after Mayawati assumed the reins of the government in May 2007, action against them was kept pending.