UP purges UPSIDC of more Mulayam men

The removal of former chief minister Mulayam Singh's appointees at the UP State Industrial Development Corporation (UPSIDC), the state's infrastructure arm, continues. Close on the heels of the suspension of 15 senior officers on various charges, the government today removed six private sector directors on the board.

A government notification today said the governor, exercising powers conferred on him by Clause 90b of the articles of association of the UPSIDC, has removed six directors: Ajay Shriram, president, CII, northern region; Tarun Khetrapal, president, Indian Industries Association, UP Chapter; Irshad Mirza, chairman, Mirza International; Hulas Rai Singhal, president, UP Udyog Vyapar Sanghathan, Saharanpur; Shiv Kumar Rathore, MD, Mahesh Edible Oil Industries Ltd, Agra; and RK Gupta, MD, RA Cement Pvt Ltd, Kanpur. No reasons have been given.

A total of 15 UPSIDC officers have been suspended to date. A team under an additional director general of police is probing an alleged scam of over Rs 2,000 crore in the corporation.

The managing director of the corporation, Balvinder Kumar, said various contracts were awarded on the basis of advertisements in newspapers which had no presence in the state.

"We have enough circumstantial evidence to prove the criminal activity which the officers were involved in," said Kumar.

In the Tronica city project, the loss has been put at Rs.200 crore. The alleged Tronica scam involves allotment of 96,000 sq metres for a group area housing scheme and 76,500 sq metres for commercial use.

The officers, sources said, used the high difference between between the market price and the government price of land. For instance, in some areas, the market price was Rs 12,000 per sq metres while the government price was Rs.2500-3000 per sq metres. Similarly, Rs.20.61 crore is alleged to have been paid to engineers on the basis of false bills.

About the role of the managing directors, Kumar said in August 2005, the then MD, K Dhanalaxmi, delegated all powers to the then chief engineer, Arun Kumar Misra. Therefore, no contract paper bears Dhanalaxmi's signatures, he said, adding this continued during the tenure of Chanchal Tewary and the officer who succeeded Dhanalaxmi.

Asked if this could have happened without his knowledge, Kumar said this was highly unlikely "but the government has to take a view on it."

The fifteen suspended officials include one with the chief engineer rank stationed at the head office in Kanpur, two regional managers at Ghaziabad and Kanpur, an executive engineer, project officer of the Tronica city industrial area project, and the officer-in-charge of the Sikandarabad industrial area.