No important files found with suspended LDA clerk

LUCKNOW : After much delay, the Lucknow Development Authority on Tuesday, initiated action against suspended clerk Mukteshwar Nath Ojha to retrieve files lying in his cupboards for the last five months. However, the development authority failed to get any important file from Ojha’s cupboards.

In all, 30 files were recovered from six cupboards of Ojha.

A few months ago, the LDA VC had suspended Ojha when his name figured in a plot allotment scam. By illegal means, Ojha had got a Rs 2.5 crore plot allotted in his wife’s name. He was suspended on February 27.

On Tuesday, on the orders of vice-chairman of the development authority, Prabhu Narain Singh, locks of five cupboards under Ojha’s possession were broken and the proceedings were video-recorded.

The LDA VC had constituted a committee comprising Rajesh Shukla, officer on special duty, maintenance officer Ashok Pal Singh and other officials to supervise the entire proceedings.

In the afternoon, locks of Ojha’s cupboards were broken. But most the important files were missing. Satyendra Singh, the then LDA VC, had suspended Ojha. Even after five months of suspension, the LDA could not take into possession files under Ojha’s custody. It is alleged that the tainted clerk could have retrieved important files during this period. All throughout this suspension period, Ojha continued to roam freely at the LDA office, Gomti Nagar.

He was arrested by the Gomti Nagar police from the LDA campus on July 19 after the LDA lodged a formal complaint against him. But he was released late in the night from the police station as the LDA failed to lodge an FIR against him.

Commenting on Ojha’s release, Deepak Kumar, senior superintendent of police, stated that the LDA failed to provide any evidence against the clerk and as such he was set free from the police station.

Ojha is not the only clerk in the LDA whose conduct is dubious. It is suspected that there are many others who are neck-deep into corruption.

However, after the formation of the BJP government in state, the development authority is under pressure to act against unscrupulous elements.

Present LDA VC Prabhu Narain Singh is also striving hard to bring a change in the development authority. Recently, it was after a long time that LDA engineers posted in Lucknow for a long time were transferred.