CBI to start probe into Gomti River front project soon

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to commence the  probe into the alleged multi-crore rupees scam in the Gomti Riverfront Development project.

In July, the Yogi Adityanath government had sent a letter to Government of India recommending a CBI probe in. The state government has sent all the documents related to the Gomti Riverfront to the CBI through its Lucknow unit.

According to sources, the CBI was set to commence its probe in the Gomti Riverfront scam very soon.

But the UP government did not send the relevant documents along with the recommendation letter for the CBI probe. The documents were sent after the corruption wing of the CBI sought the same before starting the probe.

On June 19 last, Irrigation department had filed FIRs against 8 engineers at the Gomti Nagar police station over the corruption indulged in the Gomti Riverfront. The FIR was registered on the recommendation of the Justice (Retd) Alok Kumar Singh report.

A panel, headed by Urban Development Minister Suresh Khanna, which assessed the Justice Alok Singh probe committee report on the anomalies, had too recommended a probe by the CBI.

Just a few days after taking over as the Chief Minister on March 19 Adityanath visited the riverfront for a spot inspection.

After it came to light that the project was far off from being complete despite exhausting over 90 per cent of the budget he formed a probe panel under Justice Alok Kumar Singh.

After going through the report of the panel, it was discovered that  nearly a dozen officials were allegedly responsible for delaying of Rs 1,590 crore project.

The CM then constituted another committee headed by Khanna to assess the probe report and recommend disciplinary action.

Apart from financial irregularities, the Khanna committee has also found blatant violation of environmental laws, favouring of tenders, tailoring of tender conditions and inflated rates of the project components, and recommended a CBI inquiry .