Lucknow, November 9 (). The Yogi government of the state is continuously attacking corruption and corrupt people by adopting the policy of zero tolerance. In this sequence, the Social Welfare Department, while taking dismissal proceedings against four officers accused of corruption, has directed for deduction from the pension of three retired officers.
Some of these corruption cases were pending for more than one and a half decade. Three of the accused officers have retired. Along with recovery of government money, instructions have been given to make permanent deduction from pension. Action has been taken against the accused officials after the investigation conducted under the supervision of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Social Welfare, Shri Aseem Arun. The departmental minister has registered FIR in all the cases and directed to take action.
Among those on whom action was taken, Meena Srivastava (then District Social Welfare Officer, Shravasti) was posted in Shravasti from March 2008 to 12 April 2012. During posting, he was involved in feeding data of the applications received under the Chief Minister Mahamaya Garib Economic Assistance Scheme without getting it approved at the competent level, manipulating the account numbers of beneficiaries in the approved list of marriage illness scheme and embezzling scholarship/fee reimbursement funds. He has been dismissed from service.
Action has also been taken against Karunesh Tripathi (then District Social Welfare Officer Mathura). During their posting on private I.T.I. There are allegations of serious financial irregularities by irregularly paying scholarships/fee reimbursements to the institutions. An amount of Rs 2.53 crore will be paid as scholarship/fee reimbursement to 11 unrecognized institutions, private ITIs. The institutes provide ITI to children aged between 02 years to 51 years of age. There is an allegation of embezzling money by getting admission in the course. Along with his dismissal, there is a direction to recover Rs 19.25 crore.
The remaining officers and the action taken against them were as follows-
Sanjay Kumar Beas (then District Social Welfare Officer, Hapur), disregarding the instructions given in the Government Order in the financial year 2012-13, did not transfer the amount of scholarship/fee reimbursement to the bank accounts of the students after obtaining debit authority letter from the educational institutions, but transferred the amount of Rs. 2.74 crore directly to the bank accounts of the educational institutions.
In Hapur, by printing the list from the uploaded details of the students on the departmental website of post tenth scholarship/fee reimbursement, by applying fluid in it and forging the records, there were irregularities in the scholarship given to the students.
Action- Dismissal along with instructions to recover Rs 3.23 crore from Rajesh Kumar (then District Social Welfare Officer Shahjahanpur)
During deployment, benefits were provided to ineligible people by changing the bank accounts of the beneficiaries under the National Old Age Pension Scheme run by the department in the financial year 2022-23.
Action- Recovery of Rs 2.52 crore with dismissal. Shri Bhagwan (retired from the post of then District Social Welfare Officer Auraiya) worked in the district from 2018 to 2020. Retired from here. Verification was also done even if there was variation in the names of the accounts of old age pensioners. By changing the accounts of 251 beneficiaries, the pension amount was sent to the accounts of other persons. Investigation found a government loss of Rs 33,47,400.
Action – Out of the embezzled amount of Rs 33,47,400, Rs 20 lakhs were directed to be recovered from the officer’s bills and 10 percent to be permanently deducted from his pension. Vinod Shankar Tiwari (then District Social Welfare Officer Mathura) retired.
From the year 2015-16 to 2019-20, an amount of Rs 2.53 crore was paid as scholarship/fee reimbursement to 11 unrecognized institutions. A total of 5133 students from 20 educational institutions in the year 2018-19 and 08 educational institutions in the year 2017-18 received Rs 9.69 crore as scholarship/fee reimbursement without appearing in the examination. Action- Along with permanent deduction of 50 percent from pension, instructions for recovery action against government loss of Rs 1.96 crore, Uma Shankar Sharma (then District Social Welfare Officer, Mathura) retired.
From the year 2015-16 to 2019-20, an amount of Rs 2.53 crore was paid as scholarship/fee reimbursement to 11 unrecognized institutions. ITI by institutions Payment of funds to 5526 more students than the sanctioned seats in the course was received irregularly. Action- Instructed to recover government loss of Rs 88,94,040 along with permanent deduction of 50 percent from the pension of the retiree. The state government under the leadership of CM Yogi is strictly against corruption at any level. The government has talked about continuing the action campaign. Immediate action will be taken in other such cases which were suppressed and FIR will also be registered.
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AS/
