Uttar Pradesh government has announced a large-scale transfers of civil servants serving in various districts and departments across the state. Prominent among those transferred are Gorakhpur DM Rajiv Rautela and Bareilly DM Raghvendra Vikkram Singh.
Rautela, believed to be close to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, had earned condemnation for stopping the announcement of counting of votes for the just-concluded Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur. He was also accused of forcing the media personnel and election observers out of the counting centre as the BJP candidate trailed in the chief minister’s home constituency. In the reshuffle, he’s been appointed as the Divisional Commissioner of Devipatan.
Rautela is not new to controversy. Adityanath was accused of shielding him in the children’s deaths case at BRD Medical College Hospital in August last year. More than 500 children had died due to lack of Oxygen supply in just few months. The government had framed charges against the former principal of the college, Dr Rajeev Mishra, his wife and Dr Kafeel Khan to jail. Rautela was spared along with other officials, believed to be close to the UP CM.
In December, the Allahabad High Court had ordered Rautela’s suspension over an illegal mining.
Singh, who had caused quite a stir with his Facebook post during the Kasganj riots, has been shunted out of his post just two months before his retirement. He’s been made a special secretary in the agriculture production department.
Singh had become a hero after he bravely questioned the trend of entering Muslim localities and raising anti-Pakistan slogans. He had taken to Facebook to upload two posts one of which said, “Ajab rivaj ban gaya hai. Muslim mohallon mein jabrdasti juloos le jao aur Pakistan murdabaad ke naarey lagaao. Kyon bhai, ve Pakistani hain kya? Yehi yahan Bareilly mein Khailam mein hua tha. Fir patharav hua, mukadme likhe gaye… (A very strange trend has started of late. Take out processions by force in Muslim neighbourhoods anD chant anti-Pakistan slogans. Why brothers? Are these people Pakistanis? The same thing had taken place in Khailam village of Bareilly. Then stones were pelted, FIRs lodged).”
In total, the UP government has transferred 37 officers.
Samajwadi Party had wrested Gorakhpur and Phulpur from the BJP in the last week’s bypolls. Both seats were previously held by Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya respectively.