Yogi sacks 2 DMs over foodgrain hoarding

Taking strong exception to blackmarketing and illegal hoarding of foodgrain, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday suspended 10 officials including the district magistrates of Gonda and Fatehpur. The chief minister also ordered registration of FIRs against the suspended officials.

District magistrate of Gonda JB Singh and DM Fatehpur, Kumar Prashant, have been suspended on charges of laxity and failure to check blackmaketing and anomaly in the distribution of foodgrain and purchase of wheat.

“Usually, action is ordered against junior level officials and no accountability is fixed at the senior level when instances of irregularities are detected. But this situation can be easily avoided if effective monitoring is done by senior officials,” Adityanath said in a press communique issued by his office.

The suspension of the DMs was in keeping with the state government’s zero tolerance policy against corruption and laxity and should serve as an example for others, he added in the statement.

JB Singh was issued a warning by the chief minister in a different matter related to illegal mining in the region, in which four police officers were suspended in October last year.

Besides Singh, district supply officer Rajiv Kumar and district food marketing officer Ajay Vikram Singh of Gonda were suspended after they were indicted in a probe report for illegal hoarding of 9,162 bags of foodgrain, against the provisions of Food Safety and Drug Administration Act.

Centre food inspectors Bharat Singh and Mahesh Prasad had been immediately suspended when the case first came to light.

Similarly, in Fatehpur, an inquiry conducted by the additional food commissioner found that despite instructions, no wheat purchase was made from farmers for 18 days from May 13, 2018, and no reason was provided.

Apart from DM Kumar Prashant, those against whom action was ordered included Narendra Kumar, in-charge of the mandi purchase centre at Bisauli, and Rafeeq Ansari, district manager PCF, apart from purchase officer Prem Narain, Gulab Singh of UP Agro and marketing inspector Shakti Jaiswal.

Action has also been initiated against district food supply and distribution officer Ghanshyam.

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