Corruption Watch

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<b>Six whistleblowers killed in two years in Uttar Pradesh </b>

The script is the same. Satyendra Dubey is much in the news these days, for reasons, both right and wrong. This man, an able, upright and honest engineer, blew the whistle on corruption and got murdered.

Swap the name with any of the following in Uttar Pradesh. The rest is a matter of copy and paste! LN Singh, Indu Bhushan, SC Rai, Masood Alam Siddiqui, SK Bajpayee and Anwar Mehndi Rizwi are the names of six engineers, who have been murdered in the past two years. Except for the modus operandi and the location and name of the department they worked for, it’s a similar story.

They were all B Techs or M Techs from IITs and RECs. They were all in charge of important development projects. And, they were all working with the government.

The count is on. There are many more such “Dubeys” in the making. The Hindustan Times has got copies of letters written by “helpless” government engineers to ministers, detailing irregularities in construction work and pleading for security. They keep on receiving death threats from contractors at regular intervals.

First, a report from Etawah, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s home district. JC Bhashkar, executive engineer (irrigation) wrote that a few contractors barged into his office on September 20 and tried to snatch official records. They even assaulted officials. “Sir, these incidents are common and we are so scared that we do not lodge FIRs,” Bhashkar said.

RN Kapoor, assistant engineer in National Highway Section 2 (PWD), wrote that contractors for the Delhi-Lucknow stretch on National Highway-24 were threatening to kill him. Reason: he objected to the poor quality of construction material. “Sir, my parents are above 80 and live alone. Vikas Traders threatened me not to turn up at the construction site. I’m scared and fear for the lives of my parents also. Please do the needful.”

D.P. Gupta, assistant engineer, PWD, Gonda, wrote to the Principal Secretary (Home) on November 7, 2003: “Some criminal elements want me to compromise and do favours to them. They have threatened to murder me, if I refuse.”

A few contractors attacked PP Dutta, executive engineer with PWD, Mau, on January 29, 2003. Dutta was critically injured. However, he survived to write to the PWD minister. “Sir, the contractors are local mafia and the engineers working in the area are under constant threat. Sir, please take strict action or else we cannot do our work,” he wrote.

“Honourable Chief Minister,” wrote Ram Adhar, assistant engineer, PWD, Jaunpur, “local mafia Guddu with his accomplices assaulted me on April 9, 2003. They said they want the contract for the renovation work in the Jaunpur area and if I fail to oblige them they would kill me. Madam (Mayawati), please take action.”

No action has been taken so far. The contractors continue to reign. And the ministers couldn’t care less.

Muzzled voices

Satyendra Dubey (above) was killed in Bihar for exposing corruption. Here are a few cases of whistle blowers in UP

Six government engineers killed in UP in two years. All of them were IIT or REC Graduates

Many upright government engineers fear for their lives. They have sought protection from corrupt contractors

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_503218,0008.htm