Lucknow, March 4 Continuing his "zero tolerance policy" against corruption, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has sacked 1,300 employees of the Jal Nigam in a single stroke.
All the sacked employees were appointed by then minister and now MP Mohd Azam Khan in the previous Samajwadi Party regime. The appointments were said to be made through a faulty selection process.
Azam Khan, now in jail in connection with a forgery case, was the Urban Development Minister in the Samajwadi regime and head of the Jal Nigam at the time of the recruitment in 2016-17.
Additional Chief Engineer of UP Jal Nigam, I.K. Srivastava, in an order issued on Monday, dismissed 122 assistant engineers, 853 junior engineers and 325 clerks from the date of their appointment following inquiry by a special investigation team (SIT) and the department.
A senior government official said the recruitment has been set aside based on the departmental inquiry and a report from the SIT.
The SIT, formed by the Yogi government in 2017 to investigate allegations of irregularities in the selection process, found that proper selection process was not adopted and pointed out faulty working of the Mumbai-based private firm, hired for conducting the examination for the recruitment.
Soon after the completion of the selection process, several candidates had moved the court, alleging irregularities in selection.
The assistant engineers were earlier dismissed by the Yogi government but they had got a reprieve from the Supreme Court.
A new order has now been issued to cancel their appointments, based on fresh reports, the official stated.
The official said action will also be taken against the Mumbai firm and the candidates who were illegally selected.
The order, however, gives reprieve to the sacked employees because it does seek the recovery of salary and allowances from them.
( With inputs from IANS )