Yogi Adityanath orders review of Yash Bharti awards
Around 3,500 hectare of land was purchased from 20,456 farmers in 10 districts of 232 villages for this project.
Lucknow: Instead of scrapping the Yash Bharti awards given during the Samajwadis Party regime, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered an investigation into the selection of recipients for the highest state awards that carry a cash prize of Rs 11 lakh and a monthly pension of Rs 50,000.
The Chief Minister has also ordered an investigation into the Lucknow –Agra Expressway project amidst reports of irregularities in land acquisition and payment of enhanced compensation. He has sought reports of land acquisition in the past 18 months from ten districts through which the expressway passes.
The move comes after a special field officer of Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority, Y. N. Lal, filed an FIR in Firozabad against five ‘chakbandi’ (land consolidation) officers and 22 land owners accusing them of showing agriculture land in Bachhela Bachheli village as land for residential purposes.
Around 3,500 hectare of land was purchased from 20,456 farmers in 10 districts of 232 villages for this project. The Chief Minister was reviewing the working of various departments on Thursday night when he passed the orders.
The Yash Bharti awards were set up former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1994 and Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan was among the first recipients of the award. Other eminent recipients of the award include Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and singers including Shubha Mudgal and Kailash Kher.
During Akhilesh Yadav regime, there were allegations that the awards were being given arbitrarily and without any set norms for selection.
Even as he faced allegations about his choice of winners, former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was accused of going too far when during one award ceremony held in Lucknow, he announced the award for the woman announcer on the spot.
Two staffers in the Samajwadi Party office were also named for the award — for ‘excellence in journalism’. Sources say if the inquiry establishes ‘misuse’ of the award, some of the recipients may lose the Rs 50,000 monthly pension. “There will, however, be no decision to take back the award,” said an official.