The Uttar Pradesh government today suspended two senior IAS officers for allegedly conniving with Forest Department officials to illegally lease out land for mining in Mirzapur and Sonebhadra districts.Besides the two IAS officers, eight Forest Department officials, including a wildlife warden and a divisional forest officer, and the mining officer of Sonebhadra were also suspended.Official sources said the illegal mining was carried out between 2001 and 2003. Both the suspended IAS officers, V Rami Reddy and V K Varshney, served as district magistrates of Sonebhadra at different periods during this time. Varshney had earlier been suspended in 2002 by then chief minister Mayawati when he was the district magistrate of Lakhimpur-Kheri, though on different grounds.Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav took the decision to suspend the 11 officials at a review meeting of five government departments, including the Forest Department, today.A probe had been ordered into the mining scam in January 2004, and the inquiry report pointing to the officers’ involvement was placed before the Chief Minister at today’s meeting.According to Chief Secretary Vinod Kumar Mittal, pattas of forest land in the two districts were given to private contractors for mining purposes in contravention of rules. Briefing the press today, Mittal said the no-objection certificates (NOCs) were illegally given to the private contractors by the two IAS officers.Principal Secretary, Forest, Surjit Kaur Sandhu, who was also present at today’s review meeting, informed that mining had since been stopped.The other officers suspended by the Chief Minister were S K Singh, Mining Officer of Sonebhadra; Divisional Forest Officer of Mirzapur K P Yadav; Deputy DFO, R N Singh; Deputy DFO of Renukoot A K Shukla; Wildlife Warden Ram Avadh Ram; Range Officer of Windhamganj Shiv Shankar; Range Officer of Markundi J P Chaubey; Range Officer of Daala, Obra, D N Singh; and Range Officer of Dermottganj, C S Pandey.Earlier, in March this year, three other forest officials, V P Singh, R K Singh and T P Dubey, had been suspended following a departmental inquiry.
