Mayawati's men siphoned off Rs 1,400 crore in dalit memorial scam, UP lokayukta says

LUCKNOW, May 20, 2013: In a setback for former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, UP lokayukta NK Mehrotra has indicted 199 people including Bahujan Samaj Party chief's close aide Naseemuddin Siddiqui in the dalit memorial scam. In his report submitted to chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, the lokayukta has said that public money worth Rs 1,400 crore was siphoned off by ministers and bureaucrats during her regime.
The total cost of construction of the 14 dalit memorials in Lucknow and Noida was Rs 5919 crore. Surprisingly, the report gives a clean chit to Mayawati. It, however, recommends that losses due to scam should be compensated by the accused former ministers.

Besides Siddiqui, former minister Babu Singh Kushwaha has also been named as main accused in the scam. Others include 54 engineers, 37 accountants and 60 owners of the firms engaged for construction of the memorials. The lokayukta has also recommended lodging of FIR against 19 people including Siddiqui and Kushwaha.
The lokayukta has concluded Siddiqui and Kushwaha were at the centre of the scam. Siddiqui was the public works department minister at that time and Kushwaha was in charge of the mines. The probe also found that around of Rs 4,188 crore spent on the purchase and finishing of stones for the memorials, around 35% was pocketed by politicians, bureaucrats, engineers and contractors.

The lokayukta has also recommended that a detailed probe into the issue should be conducted by a special task force constituted by the state government or CBI and Enforcement Directorate. He has also suggested formation of special court for the trial. The lokayukta was assisted by the economic offences wing of the state police. In September last year, the state government had referred the matter to the lokayukta for a probe.

It was also found during investigation that Siddiqui and Kushwaha had a tiff over sharing commission paid by the contractors. Kushwaha got larger share in comparison to Siddiqui. Kushwaha was later expelled from the BSP after his named figured in the NRHM scam.

The scam was unearthed in May 2012 when police conducted a preliminary investigation on a complaint. It found that anomalies took place at every step from plantation of trees to allotment of construction contracts. Large scale irregularities were also detected in mining and purchase of sand stones for construction of the memorials and statutes in Lucknow and Noida, import of palm trees for plantation in memorials and purchase of lights for beautification. Besides anomalies, there was also wasteful expenditure.

In the preliminary inquiry held earlier, it was found that a consortium of 39 mining leaseholders from Mirzapur was formed for sandstone supply. The formation of consortium was illegal as several mining leaseholders had not renewed their mining licenses. The expenditure on purchasing and supply of sandstone shown on paper was allegedly more than double of actual cost.

Further, official cost of carving of the elephant installed in memorials was shown Rs 48 lakh on papers but only Rs 5 lakh per statute was paid. The memorials have over 200 statues of elephant. Over 37,000 palm trees were imported from the Middle East for the memorials. A tree costing Rs 5000 was purchased at Rs 25,000.

No study was done to find out whether imported trees will survive in new conditions or not. As a result, of the total trees bought, only around 10% survived.

Also, on papers it was stated that bulbs and lights for lightening and electrification in and around memorials were imported from Belgium and Denmark but in reality duplicates were purchased from Noida and Gurgaon.

Courtesy: The Times of India