Job scam probe: Had no role in Jal Nigam recruitments, Azam tells SIT
LUCKNOW: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Azam Khan on Monday denied before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that he had any role in the alleged Jal Nigam recruitment scam. “Recruitments are the work of the government department and not the minister or chairman of Jal Nigam,” he told SIT, which is probing the alleged job scam.
LUCKNOW: Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former minister Azam Khan on Monday denied before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that he had any role in the alleged Jal Nigam recruitment scam.
“Recruitments are the work of the government department and not the minister or chairman of Jal Nigam,” he told SIT, which is probing the alleged job scam.
Giving this information to the media persons later, Khan added, “There is no stain on my political career but the BJP government is trying to malign my image with fake and baseless charges.”
The former minister was summoned by SIT to record his statement on charges of irregularities in recruitment on 1,300 posts in the nigam during the SP government.
He arrived at the SIT office at 12.30 pm where a three-member SIT team, including Nageshwar Singh (SP), Amirita Mishra (ASP) and Atal Behari (inspector), recorded his statement till 2.30 pm.
Lashing out at the BJP governments at Centre and in Uttar Pradesh, the former minister said rather than providing employment to youths, the government is making them jobless. “There has been a phenomenal increase in unemployment under the BJP rule,” he said.
Criticising the SIT probe, he said: “I have the blessings of the youths who were given job under the SP government. When SP returns to power, the government will again give jobs to the unemployed”.
Majority of the youths, who were recruited on various posts in the nigam, belong to poor families and only few are Muslims, whose parents do menial jobs to make a living, he said.
“The state government is trying to smear my image. I was left with no other option but to reply to the allegations,” he said.
Khan said “as a minister, I have established a university, a medical college and a school in Rampur to provide education to the youths. Majority of the students
come from lower middle class and have won laurels in various national competitions. I have no car and live in an old house located in a narrow lane,”
Meanwhile, superintendent of police (SP), SIT, Nageshwar Singh said, the state government handed over the Jal Nigam recruitment scam probe to it in July last year. There were allegations of large-scale irregularities and corruption in the recruitments. The APTEC -- the agency that conducted the test -- had accepted that anomalies were committed in recruitment on 1,300 posts, including assistant engineers, junior engineers and clerks. Khan, the then urban development minister and chairman of Jal Nigam was accused of interfering in the recruitment process.
The SIT has already recorded the statements of then secretary, urban development, SP Singh, then Jal Nigam chief engineer AK Khare, former Jal Nigam MD PK Ashudani, officials of APTEC and Ashfaq Khan, officer on special duty.
He said SIT is probing whether the recruitments were done according to rules. A report will be sent to a committee, comprising principal secretary (Home), DG (SIT) and principal secretary, urban development for further action.
SIT will also send data and answer books of the exam for forensic test, he said.