2 from voc edu dept suspended on corruption charges

Lucknow: The state govt on Friday suspended two officials of the vocational education, skill development and entrepreneurship department for alleged corruption and serious irregularities in the departmental transfers.Additional director at the directorate of training and employment, Dhirendra Kumar, and principal assistant, Imran Ahmad were suspended following complaints of irregularities and corruption in handling transfers and various projects.Principal secretary, department of vocational education, skill development and entrepreneurship, Hari Om said, “There were complaints regarding serious irregularities in transfers and other projects. With govt’s zero-tolerance policy, both have been suspended with immediate effect.”In his suspension order, director at the directorate of training and employment, Abhishek Singh said that Imran’s conduct was found unethical and was involved in alleged acts such as bribery, religious discrimination, and harassment of employees.In addition, Ahmed’s involvement was prima facie found in running a syndicate and getting work done through improper means.The suspension order issued by Abhishek Singh stated that Dhirendra Kumar demanded kickbacks from contractors for every task and extracted a 10% commission on the construction projects.The order also read that Kumar allegedly threatened colleagues who failed to influence the budget allocations for several schemes.