Two days after Lokayukta N K Mehrotra prima facie held him guilty of misusing his position,grabbing government land and siphoning government funds,Minister of State for Ambedkar Gram Development Ratan Lal Ahirwar resigned on Thursday morning. On the Chief Ministers recommendation,Governor B L Joshi accepted the ministers resignation and allotted his portfolio to Cooperative Minister Swami Prasad Maurya,who is also BSPs state unit president. Ahirwar said he had submitted his resignation to Mayawati on Wednesday. I will continue to work for the party,but I dont want to say anything regarding my resignation, he said. Ahirwar is the fifth minister who has lost his post following indictment by the Lokayukta. Earlier,the Lokayuktas adverse reports had led to the ouster of Homoeopathy Minister Rajesh Tripathi,Secondary Education Minister Rangnath Mishra,Labour Minister Badshah Singh and Dairy Development Minister Awadh Pal Singh Yadav. Besides Ahirwars removal,the Lokayukta has also recommended the recovery of money that he had misused. The minister had got Rs 9.56 lakh released from the Bundelkhand Development Fund for construction work in his school in 2004,and had diverted Rs 29.76 lakh from his MLA Area Development Fund to the school run by his son at Unaoli village in Jhansi district. The Lokayukta found that the school was built by grabbing gram sabha land and a case was lodged by the local Lekhpal in 2006. After Ahirwar became a minister in 2007,the government moved an application in the court of Jhansi CJM to withdraw the case. After the CJM rejected the case,a revision application was filed in the court of District Judge which is still pending. Ahirwar represents Babina (reserved) constituency in Jhansi district which was abolished in the delimitation. The BSP has decided not to field him in the coming Assembly elections. Ahirwar was first elected to the state Assembly in 1989 as a BJP candidate. He was re-elected in 1991 and 1993. In 2004,he was elected as a Samajwadi Partys nominee. This is his fifth term in the state Assembly and ruling BSP is his third party.
