DM shifts BDO after MLA accuses officials of graft, negligence

BAHRAICH: Taking a serious note of the complaints of dalit BJP MLA from Balha constituency of Bahraich district Akchaywar Lal Gond that administrative and police officials did not pay heed to the issues raised by him, Bahraich district magistrate Mala Shrivastava transferred a block development officer (BDO) on Wednesday.

The dalit MLA had approached administrative and police officials on ‘Sampoorna Samadhan Divas’ at Nanpara Tehsil as a common man on Tuesday with the complaints of negligence of district officials and rising corruption in the government’s welfare schemes.

Though the officials invited him on the dais, he preferred to stand and complained of corruption in PDS, PM Awas Yojana and in several other welfare schemes of the central and state governments. The MLA alleged that the officials were not discharging their duties honestly and the end users were deprived of the benefits of welfare schemes of the government. Besides, no work of common man was being done without taking bribe, he added.

Taking action on the MLA’s complaint, the Bahraich DM transferred BDO (Mihinpurwa) Surendra Gupta and appointed Chandra Shekhar Prasad in his place.

Talking to HT, Gond said during ‘Gram Swaraj Campaign’ he had organised a chaupal at several villages in the past two months and reviewed major problems in the area. “I had handed over a letter to chief minister Yogi Adityanath and to the state general secretary (organization) of the BJP Sunil Bansal regarding corruption in the system. He added that a copy of the letter was also handed over to the district administration but nothing had been done so far.

He said officials did not bother to take action or answer his query even after several months. “So I decided to put my voice through a public platform. He alleged that PDS dealers were not distributing food grains as per norms. A large number of complaints were there in connection with the government Awas scheme too, he added.

He alleged that those who were responsible for the implementation of government welfare schemes were indulging in corruption and not doing work without realising bribe. He alleged that village heads and secretaries were taking money for issuing houses under the welfare scheme.

SHARIQ RAIS SIDDIQUI