Oppn behind complaints

Four ministers have been dismissed in UP after facing corruption charges.

Four ministers have been dismissed in UP after facing corruption charges. And in all cases,except one,it appears political rivals are behind the chain of events that forced Mayawati to sack her key Cabinet members.

The lone exception was Secondary Education Minister Rangnath Mishras case,in which the complainant was Swaminath Mishra,a former bar association president. Though Swaminath is not a politician,he is close to Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Kumar Mishra who is in jail in a criminal case and is also his advocate. He,however,denies he moved the Lokayukta because of his closeness to the SP MLA.

The ministers property was growing. He bought a house for Rs 80 lakh in Allahabad and after two days,his son bought a house in Allahabad for Rs 24 lakh, said Swaminath Mishra.

The complaint against Labour Minister Badshah Singh was filed by Akhilesh Upadhyay,a member of the SP state executive. Upadhyay alleged that Badshah had grabbed government land around the college he built in his fathers memory and built a house on land allotted for a health centre.

In August,Mayawati had removed MoS for Animal Husbandary and Dairy Development Awadh Pal Singh after the Lokayukta indicted him for misusing his powers to benefit his family and grabbing land.

The complaint against Awadh Pal was filed by lawyer Subodh Yadav,son of Rameshwar Singh Yadav,a former SP MLA. The minister had defeated Rameshwar Singh Yadav in the 2007 Assembly polls.

When a number of fake criminal cases were lodged against me and my family members at the behest of Awadh Pal,I decided to lodge a complaint with the Lokayukta, Subodh said.

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The first BSP minister who was removed after being indicted by the Lokayukta was Rajesh Tripathi in December last year. The complaint against Tripathi,the then Homeopathy and Religious Endowment minister,was lodged by Vijay Shukla,a Congress leader of Gorakhpur district.

Shukla had contested the Assembly election in 2002 from Chillupar seat,which Tripathi represents.

Shukla alleged that Mukti Path Sewa Sansthan,a society headed by Tripathi,was running a crematorium on the banks of Saryu in Gorakhpur district and was charging money for cremation.