Uttar Pradesh government finally removed Noida CEO Sanjeev Saran after months of uncertainty on his status as Noida Authority CEO. Rama Raman a1987 batch IAS officer, currently the CEO of Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities, has been given additional charge of Noida.
High Court Order on Noida CEO Sanjeev Saran and one other
In a huge embarrassment to the SP government in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court had on November 8 2012 ordered removal of two tainted IAS officers of the Authority – Sanjeev Saran and chairman Rakesh Bahadur from key posts in Noida. Sanjeev Saran was CEO Noida, while Rakesh Bahadur was Noida Chairman. The court directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry into their appointments, their alleged wrongdoings, as well as all allegations of irregularities in land allotments in the city since 2001. Uttar Pradesh government transferred tainted Chief Executive Officer Noida Sanjeev Saran on January 16, 2013 and placed him on wait list.
While Saran has been kept in waiting, rumors of Rakesh Bahadur being transferred are also doing the rounds. However, Bahadur continues to remain in charge of all the three authorities.
Two days after Akhilesh Yadav took the oath of office, the state government had removed former Noida CEO SK Dwivedi and chairman Mohinder Singh a day later. The government then posted Rakesh Bahadur as the chairperson and Sanjeev Saran as the CEO 49 days after the positions had been lying defunct having no full time officials in charge.
Rakesh Bahadur and Saran had been the chairman and CEO of Noida, respectively, from 2005 to 2007 during the earlier Mulayam Singh regime. The previous BSP government of Mayawati had suspended the two officials for their alleged involvement in a multi-crore plot allotment case in Noida that had allegedly caused the state exchequer a loss of Rs 4721.14 crore. However, they were appointed again in May after the present SP government took over.
Other Transfers
As part of bureaucratic shuffle the state government on Wednesday transferred infrastructure and industrial development commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta who was holding additional charge of principal secretary, infrastructure and chairman UP Power Corporation Limited. He has now been made a member revenue board.
Principal secretary technical education Rajiv Kapoor has been given additional charge of infrastructure and industrial development department.
Divisional commissioner and principal secretary information Sanjiv Kumar Mittal has been transferred to energy department. He will also function as chairman UPPCL.
Inputs from PTI