In the Mayawati government, the Lucknow team of Uttar Pradesh Vigilance Foundation (Vigilance) has arrested four top officials of the State Construction Corporation in the memorial scam in Lucknow and Noida. At the same time, Vigilance team can also clamp down on several other officials including State Construction Corporation, LDA. An FIR was registered in this case at Gomti Nagar police station.
The UP Vigilance Lucknow team was investigating the scandal in the grand memorials built in Lucknow and Noida during Mayawati’s reign from 2007 to 2011. In order to investigate this, the Vigilance team on Friday arrested financial consultant Vimalkant Mudgal, general manager technical SK Tyagi, general manager Sodik Krishna Kumar, unit in-charge Kameshwar Sharma. The team is interrogating all four of them. This case is also to be produced in court today.
There was a scam worth crores of rupees
High prices were levied for the stones in the monuments built in Lucknow and Noida. 29 machines were put together in Mirzapur and it was shown in the papers that the stones were taken to Rajasthan and got cut there, then the cut was done. Crores of rupees were made in the name of haulage. Consortium was formed which was against the mining rules. 840 per cubic foot more was recovered. Ministers, officers, and engineers arbitrarily contracted stone supplies to their favorites and took a hefty commission. It was also revealed in the investigation that the officers were arbitrarily authorized to fix the price. The leasing was started after fixing a higher price. The firm of the advisor’s brother was arbitrarily handed over crores of rupees.
The investigation started in 2014
In the year 2014, the then SP government handed over the investigation of the case to the Vigilance Establishment (Vigilance) of UP Police. This happened when the Lokayukta recommended a CBI probe into the scam.
Vigilance has not been able to take any action against the accused even after five years after filing a case at Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar police station. The case is still pending at the government level for acceptance of prosecution. Many parks and sculptures were constructed during the BSP’s reign between 2007-12. Meanwhile, two such large parks were built in Lucknow and Noida, in which hundreds of statues of elephant, the election symbol of the party, were erected in addition to the then Chief Minister Mayawati, BSP founder Kanshi Ram and Bharat Ratna Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar. At that time, this decision of the Mayawati government was widely criticized by the opposition leaders.
After the investigation report of Lokayukta Justice NK Mehrotra, the scam which came under discussion came under the scanner of the entire SP government. The Lokayukta had recommended the CBI or SIT to conduct a detailed inquiry into the matter, fearing a Rs 1400 crore scam in the construction of the monuments. However, Akhilesh government did not give inquiry to both the institutions and handed over the investigation to Vigilance. Vigilance’s investigation continued at such a slow pace that there was no progress in four years. Meanwhile, after the intervention of Allahabad High Court, Vigilance completed the investigation and sent the case to the government for approval of prosecution.
