Bhopal: A day after the start of an enquiry into allegations of corruption against state minister Sampatiya Uikey, the Madhya Pradesh government Wednesday issued a show cause notice to the official who ordered the probe.
During the state cabinet meeting Tuesday, Uikey who is the minister for public health engineering and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Mandla questioned whether the official could initiate an inquiry against her, eventually leading to the show cause.
The previous day, Sanjay Andhavan, engineer-in-chief of the public health engineering department, had ordered an inquiry into claims involving expenditure of a portion of the Rs 30,000 crore in central funds received for work under the Jal Jeevan Mission. In a letter, Andhavan ordered officials in the department to look into properties held by Uikey as well as the executive engineer in Mandla, alleged to be ‘collecting money’ for the minister.
At the state cabinet briefing Tuesday, Uikey raised the issue before Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and sought to know the extent of the engineer’s authority.
A state BJP leader said on condition of anonymity that Uikey also urged Yadav to act against Andhavan for initiating what she termed “unsubstantiated” allegations. The demand was backed by a larger section of ministers present, it is learnt.
Soon after, Public Health Engineering Principal Secretary P. Narhari was issued directions to provide a clarification on the matter.
Speaking to The Print, Narhari said, “We have issued a show cause notice to engineer-in-chief Sanjay Andhavan, seeking his explanation on ordering a probe into the complaint.”
“We receive several complaints against public representatives and public servants. The engineer-in-chief is supposed to check the facts, as well as work with authorities in his capacity, without initiating an inquiry. The engineer-in-chief is under the minister, not the other way round,” he added.
The allegations stem from a complaint Kishore Samrite, national president of Sanyukt Kranti Party, sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that ministers, officers, and contractors in Madhya Pradesh were misusing funds meant to provide tap water connections to rural households.
In his complaint, Samrite alleged that the accused had already misused Rs 1,000 crore from central funds allocated to the state. The PMO forwarded the complaint to the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary, and then, the public health engineering department.
“The response received from the engineer-in-chief on the show cause notice issued to him will decide the further course of action, whether a departmental inquiry against him will continue or not. However, any person holding his post will be well aware of the rules,” said a senior official from the MP government who did not wish to be named.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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