The sheen is wearing off and the real face of corruption is slowly but surely getting exposed. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to expose the Akhilesh Yadav government and he has designated his ministers for the purpose.
The Janeshwar Mishra Park, one of the dream projects of former CM Akhilesh Yadav, has emerged as a showcase of corruption and over pricing. This is the third project after the Gomti Riverfront and JPN International Centre where ministers in the Adityanath government have carried out inspections and discovered huge anomalies.
Three LED TV screens have been installed in the Janeshwar Mishra Park at the cost of Rs 2.64 crore, with each TV costing Rs 88 lakh, officially. The LED screens were showing cartoon films when the minister went there on a surprise check.
Rs 32 crore was spent for an artificial lake in the park, and in addition, Rs 14 crore was spent to fill it up with water.
A high mast Tricolour in the park has been set up at a cost of Rs 1.39 crore. “This would have actually not cost more than Rs 15-16 lakh,” said UP Minister of State for Housing, Suresh Pasi, who inspected the project.
The minister said, “The level of corruption is unbelievable and to think that you people (media) hailed him (Akhilesh) as a youth icon. The previous government did not even spare the national flag when it came to corruption and commission.”
The minister said that the Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) officials informed him that the pathway lights installed in the park were purchased at a cost of Rs 1.28 lakh each, while the high mast lights were bought for Rs 9 lakh each.
Wooden benches that come for Rs 14,000 each, have been bought for Rs 1.4 lakh each. The benches are made of cheap Babool wood, which comes for Rs 1,000 per quintal.
The minister said that the music system installed in the park was purchased for Rs 3.60 crore, while Rs 39.6 crore was spent on planting grass and decorative plants in the park. Toilets in the park were built for Rs 6.75 crore.
Gondolas, similar to Kashmir’s shikaras, that are available for Rs 20,000 each, were bought for Rs 16 lakh each for the lake. A platform where visitors can get on and get off from the boats has been installed at the cost of Rs 30 lakh.
Pasi said that every item for the park had been purchased at highly enhanced prices.
“The Samajwadis believed that they would return to power and there would be no inquiry into their misdeeds. But we are not going to spare anyone and the punishment for this corruption will be so strong that in future, officials would think twice before indulging in corruption,” he stated, while adding that it is not “Kaam Bolta Hai” (the election slogan of the Samajwadi Party), but “corruption bolta hai”.
He said that the LDA had been avoiding putting up files related to the park, but he would make sure that he gets to the bottom of this scam.
The park project, which began with an estimated cost of Rs 168 crore, shot up to Rs 400 crore by the time it got completed. The park needs Rs 15 crore per year for maintenance.
Satyendra Singh Yadav, former vice chairman of the LDA, said, “The park has been built to match international standards and all the work was approved by the government. The LDA merely worked as a nodal agency for the project.”
Yet another dream project of the former CM to have come under the scanner of the Yogi government is the Lucknow-Agra Expressway. FIRs have been lodged against 27 persons, including the revenue officials of Sirsaganj in Ferozabad district for “faulty” land acquisition.
District magistrate Neha Sharma said the land in Bachera-Bacheri village under Sirsaganj tehsil, which was acquired for the project, was meant for agriculture, but compensation was paid after showing it as residential land in order to enhance the payment made to farmers, apparently for kickbacks. Refusing to divulge further details, the district magistrate said that a necessary probe on the FIR had been launched.
The 320-kilometer long Lucknow-Agra Expressway was touted as one of the success stories of the Akhilesh government. Built at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore, the six-lane expressway, expandable to eight-lanes, was said to be ready in a record 23 months. The expressway is said to be compatible for the landing of fighter planes in emergency situations and the inauguration of the expressway in November last year was marked by a touch-down by fighter planes.
The expressway begins form Lucknow and passes through Lucknow, Unnao, Kanpur Dehat, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya, Hardoi, Kannauj, Firozabad and ends at Agra.
A total of 3,420 hectare of land belonging to over 30,000 farmers of 232 villages in these 10 districts was acquired for the project and many eyebrows were raised over the manner of compensation paid, as most of the beneficiaries were located in the Samajwadi Party-dominated region.
BJP president Amit Shah, during the election campaign, had repeatedly pointed to large scale corruption in the expressway project and had promised an inquiry into the same.
Yogi Adityanath has ordered a probe into the Gomti Riverfront project, Janeshwar Mishra Park and the Jai Prakash Narain International Centre. Heavy overpricing has been found in all these projects.