UP govt suspends 12 officials after irregularities in panchayat grants

LUCKNOW: The Yogi Adityanath government on Sunday suspended 12 officials, including additional director (administration) Rajendra Singh for alleged irregularities in the allotment of the performance grant to panchayats.

The government has also ordered a vigilance probe.

Minister of state for panchayati raj (independent charge) Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh issued the orders after chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s approval.

The minister has also ordered departmental action against 13 other officials, including retired director, panchayati raj, Anil Damle. The other senior officials who have been suspended include chief finance and accounts officer Keshav Singh, joint director SK Singh Patel and deputy director Girish Chandra Rajak.

“Of them, Rajendra Singh is a PCS officer while the rest come from the department,” director, panchayati raj, Vijay Kiran Anand told HT.

There are allegations that the officials distributed the grant available under the 14th finance commission to ineligible panchayats in violation of the guidelines.

The state government had constituted a committee headed by the director, panchayati raj, to select village panchayats for the allocation of the performance grant. The committee had identified 1,798 village panchayats for the allocation of ₹699.7529 crore grant during 2016-17.

Present director, panchayati raj, Vijay Kiran Anand on the close analysis of audit reports, chanced upon various irregularities in the selection of panchayats as well as allocation of the performance grant to them.