Action against UP govt officers over corruption in Social Welfare Department

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government has dismissed four Social Welfare Department officers and ordered pension cuts for three retired officials after corruption charges against them were proven in separate cases dating back more than a decade, officials said.

Directions have also been issued for the registration of FIRs against the accused officials and recovering the embezzled government funds from them, a statement issued here on Sunday said.

According to the Social Welfare Department, the action was taken under the zero-tolerance policy of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government, following a probe conducted under the supervision of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Social Welfare Asim Arun.

Among those dismissed are former district social welfare officers Meena Srivastava (Shravasti), Karunesh Tripathi (Mathura), Sanjay Kumar Byas (Hapur) and Rajesh Kumar (Shahjahanpur), the statement said.

Srivastava was found guilty of manipulating beneficiary data and embezzling scholarship funds, while Tripathi and Byas were accused of transferring crores of rupees in scholarship money to unrecognised private institutions. Kumar allegedly altered beneficiary bank accounts to divert pension funds to ineligible persons, it said.

Retired officers Shri Bhagwan (Auraiya), Vinod Shankar Tiwari (Mathura) and Uma Shankar Sharma (Mathura) will face permanent pension cuts of 10 to 50 per cent, along with recovery proceedings for losses amounting to several crores, the department said.

Minister Arun said, "Under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's leadership, strict action against corruption will continue. More pending cases will soon be reopened and FIRs will be lodged wherever necessary."