PWD, prisons and previous government focus of Yogi Adityanath

NEW DELHI: The two-week old Yogi Adityanath government has lost no time in getting down to the brass tacks by initiating a crackdown of the three infamous departments of Uttar Pradesh -- the Public Works Department (PWD), Prisons Department and the big-ticket projects of former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

All contracts in the corruption-prone PWD, even those below Rs 1 crore in value, will be executed through e-tenders and party MLAs have been prohibited from running any contracting side-business. Deputy chief minister Keshav Maurya is handling the PWD department which was earlier held by Shivpal Yadav.

The chief minister has also ordered a judicial probe into Yadav's show-piece -- the Gomti river front project -- which is expected to bring the heat upon the previous dispensation. Yogi is said to be furious on learning that Rs 50 crore had been spent on installing fountains in the Gomti river while no effort had been made to clean the river and stop sewage flow into it.

As per an official statement from the chief minister, 95% of the Rs 1,513-crore budgeted for the project had already been spent but only 60% of the total work was complete. A revised cost of Rs 2,448 crore had been pitched to the government now.

With Yogi holding charge of prisons, 30 criminals, including the dreaded Mukhtar Ansari and Ateeq Ahmed, were transferred from their 'preferred jails' to other jails recently.

Frequent power cuts and 4G networks would no longer help dreaded criminals to run their respective gangs from behind bars in UP, the Additional Director General (Prisons), GL Meena, told ET. About three months ago, 12 jails in UP became the first to get jammers out of the 70 in the state. Another 12 jails are now set to get jammers over the next two months and Rs 42 crore has been released for this by the new government. But the real challenge is making these jammers effective as they are not able to stop 4G networks and shut down in the event of a power cut, he said.

"We have now written to the Electronics Corporation of India to make these jammers capable of stopping 4G network. Also, seven jails are being fitted with solar-power back-up for jammers," Meena said. He has written to the ATS and STF units of the UP Police to mount surveillance and alert his department if they detect mobile signals emanating from any of the jails.

"Money has also been cleared for installing CCTVs in 20 jails and 'Pole Metal Detection Systems' in 38 jails across UP to auto-detect entry of banned items like phones inside jails," Meena said.

The Yogi government is also planning to conduct a probe into the Agra-Lucknow Expressway project given the high cost incurred on it.

The poor progress in the implementation of the Samajwadi Awas Yojana which was supposed to provide subsidised houses to people, has also led to its closure and the PM Awas Yojana is set to subsume it.

The big loan waiver promised for farmers in UP is likely to be cleared at the first cabinet meeting of the Adityanath government on April 4. The state is actively exploring taking a loan from the Centre to fund this exercise.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/pwd-prisons-and-previous-govt-focus-of-yogi-adityanath/articleshow/57981023.cms

Decades of Sikular corruption is not easy to eliminate. If Adityanath succeeds, bhaiyyas will be grateful. CONmen and Sikularists will be history.....