After IT raid on Yadav Singh, Noida Authority takes remedial steps

Noida: In the wake of an Income Tax raid on Noida Authority engineer-in-chief Yadav Singh which yielded crores in cash and jewellery, all contracts awarded by the official have been cancelled while a special team has been formed to probe the Rs 954 crore tendering scam in which he was named.

Also, following the raids, Noida authority has now decided to go for e-tendering for projects above Rs 50 lakh.

The talk of town here today was about Singh's rise to the senior post and the trajectory of his career as a government engineer.

In 1980, Singh was posted as a junior engineer with the Noida Authority and was promoted as assistant project engineer in 1985.

In 1995, he became a project engineer before being promoted in 2002 as the chief maintenance engineer under the previous Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party regime in Uttar Pradesh. 

The 2002 appointment had been handed to Singh superseding others. Singh was seen as being close to Mayawati.

In 2011, he was elevated to the post of engineer-in-chief of Noida Authority.

But in June of 2012, Singh was suspended by the Samajwadi Party regime, which succeeded the Mayawati government, for alleged irregularities and embezzlement of funds in the execution of infrastructure projects worth Rs 954 crore.

Sanjiv Saran, the then CEO of Noida, had got a suspension notice pasted at Singh's house and his office sealed. An FIR was lodged against Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act and and Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act. The investigations in that regard were later handed over to CID.

However, in 2013, on November 7, Singh was reinstated by the UP government as the engineer-in-chief of Noida even as CID and other departmental probes continued against him.

On November 14 of this year, Singh was given additional charge as the engineer-in-chief of the Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities.

But following the raids which were carried out over two days, Singh was yesterday relieved of his charge and attached to the personnel department.

The Income Tax department conducted raids at the premises of two private companies in the National Capital Region and seized Rs 10 crore in cash and gold and diamond jewellery weighing over 2-kg.

The raids were conducted in connection with the sale of plots in Noida through bogus share-holdings. Among the premises raided was the house of Kusumlata, Singh's wife.