Lokayukta files complaint on ‘misuse’ of MLA funds

The Lokayukta registered the inquiry against the junior engineer,Arun Shukla,and Rae Bareli chief development officer Dr Akhtar Riyaz,after finding the charges prima facie true in a preliminary inquiry.

Mehrotra said a complaint had been filed by Ashok Yadav,a resident of Lucknow,against Shukla. He said Shukla is also accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income. The assets include two colleges and a school in the name of his wife.

The Lokayukta said the institution,named Rajya Sahkari Nirman Evam Vikas Sangh,which is run by Shukla,was registered with the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in 2009 but got de-registered in 2011 as it failed to submit its particulars to the registrar.

The Lokayukta said a preliminary inquiry conducted by his office revealed that it had been prohibited by the government to allot any works to the cooperative or private societies for works of MLA’s local area development fund in 2009. He said his inquiry will verify the state of works allotted to the society.

The MLAs who recommended their local area development fund to the institution include Minister of State for Agriculture and Unchahar MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey,SP MLAs Ramlal Akela from Bachhrawan,Devendra Pratap Singh from Sareni and Surendra Vikram Singh from Harchandrapur.

According to information provided to the Lokayukta office by Rae Bareli DRDA,Manoj Kumar Pandey recommended works of a total of Rs 2 lakh through the society. Akela recommended works of Rs 1.3 lakh through it. Devendra Pratap Singh recommended Rs 1.19 lakh through the society and Surendra Vikram Singh recommended works of Rs 2.7 lakh through the society. The Lokayukta said most of the works are for construction of roads.