Following the Supreme Court’s order for the demolition of real estate major Supertech’s twin residential towers and subsequent observations on prevalent corruption in the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority ( Noida), Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath has promised a defining crackdown against the corrupt officials in the local administration. However, his government also needs a lot of introspection on how one of its own agencies continued to support a tainted builder in its legal battle all through the past four years.
Even as the Yogi government now wants to steer clear of all the controversy, the bitter reality is that of massive malfeasance in the authority during subsequent governments, all through the past three decades. Noida and Greater Noida administrations have come to be synonyms of deep-rooted corruption, creation and funnelling of voluminous sums of ill-gotten wealth for politicians in power and the builder-official nexus.
Over the years there had been several sensational exposes and a few inquiries by the law enforcement agencies. Some heads have rolled and many others survived. However, no politician to date has ever been found guilty or brought to justice. Noida’s scam became an issue of electoral discourse and means of political arm-twisting, but the acute cancer of corruption was never cured.
Unfortunately, the postings in these authorities still remain coveted seats for making money, both for oneself and the political masters. Here is a glimpse of Noida’s tainted past, the issues that shook UP, from its politics to bureaucracy:
How Noida became a cash cow
Established in the late 1970s by the UP government, the authority was created with a vision of giving a boost to industrial activities in the region located next to the national capital of Delhi. Over the next decade amid the era of a controlled economy, the authority moved ahead at a moderate pace. However, with the liberalisation of the economy in the early 1990s, the private industrial enterprises got a big boost and Noida suddenly became a fulcrum of massive economic activities.
As the economy boomed and the price of land started to escalate, Noida suddenly became a centre of making easy money through cuts and manipulation of land prices and often land use. The politicians both in Lucknow and in Delhi soon realised how Noida can fill their own coffers. From there on started the unholy nexus of political patronage to corrupt officers and employees. The post of Noida CEO became the most prized posting for bureaucrats eager to “earn”.
The Neera Yadav saga—Title of ‘most corrupt’ and jail
In 1996-1997, the bureaucracy in Uttar Pradesh was shaken by the campaign of some young upright honest officers. At the helm of this campaign to identify the most corrupt among the babus was a team of young IAS officers including Vijay Shankar Pandey. In subsequent voting done by the members of the UP IAS Association in December 1996 and then a year later in December 1997, three senior IAS officers were voted as the most corrupt ones.
They were Neera Yadav, Akhand Pratap Singh and Brijendra. No surprise that Neera Yadav had been the CEO of Noida in the years just gone by and was under a storm of allegations of massive corruption. AP Singh was the chairman of UP’s industrial development and in that capacity also the reporting boss for Neera Yadav.
Now retired from service, Vijay Shankar Pandey recalls those days. He said, “We waged a war against the black sheep amidst us, but it was no secret that those sheep were reared by none other than the politicians in power. Neera Yadav was considered very close to the then Samajwadi Party president and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, and it was no secret on whose orders and why she was appointed chairman of Noida in the early 1990s when Mulayam Singh was the CM.”
Following a series of corruption charges during her tenure as the authority’s CEO, Neera Yadav subsequently faced a CBI inquiry after a case was filed by the Noida entrepreneurs’ association. Even as the case dragged on, Mulayam Singh made her the chief secretary of the state.
After a long-drawn legal battle, the CBI was finally able to prove its case against Neera Yadav and the-then additional CEO of Noida, IAS Rajeev Kumar. Both were sentenced to jail on corruption charges by the Supreme Court in 2018.
It was a judgment much awaited in the era of corruption when a popular saying was “Gandhi ji is missing from Noida”. This was a satirical reference to the acute dearth of Rs 500 banknotes with the image of Mahatma Gandhi on them. It was said that all the notes had gone into greasing the palms of Noida officers and so there was a shortage.
Mayawati’s rule—The Noida farmhouse scam
Even as political power changed from one party to another in Uttar Pradesh, Noida remained the prized possession for anyone at the helm. As Mayawati formed a majority government in 2007, Noida was again in the news for all wrong reasons.
Amid various allegations of corruption and change of land use of prime pieces of property, the scandal that shocked the state’s politics was the farmhouse scam case. The allegation was that around 99 big pieces of farmhouse land were allocated by bending rules to the high and mighty. In the opposition then, the BJP even petitioned the governor, claiming it was a scam of more than Rs 1,000 crore.
Following the uproar, investigations were ordered and a Lokayukta probe was also initiated. A few top bureaucrats were placed under suspension and the role of Mayawati was looked into. Even after a change of government in 2012, the Bahujan Samaj Party leader was cleared of all charges by the Lokayukta during chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure. The case was subsequently buried and forgotten.
Mayawati’s government was also accused of major corruption in building the Agra-Noida expressway, formation of the Yamuna industrial development authority and allocation of massive land banks to private players at throwaway prices. The Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna expressway authority had a major role to play in these deals.
Singh is king—Yadav Singh and political patronage
As big money continued to flow from Noida into the pockets of corrupt politicians and bureaucracy, no one ever noticed a small-time junior engineer gradually wielding power, endearing himself to the bosses and politicians, and virtually becoming the go-to man when dealing with the area authority.
As Singh remained the ‘king’ of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) all through successive governments from the mid-1990s to 2012, it was widely rumoured that any big deal could get no headway unless the party concerned had obtained a slip from Yadav Singh.
Senior journalist Sharat Pradhan said, “Yadav Singh was the Super CEO when it came to Noida and Greater Noida. Working directly for the political masters in Lucknow, a party willing to do business with the authorities was first supposed to submit the cut money to Yadav Singh, obtain a slip, indicating a sort of ‘no dues’, and only then would his file move across the concerned desks.”
Accused of accumulating wealth of more than Rs 1,000 crore, Yadav Singh first came on law enforcement’s radar in 2012. However, action started against him only in 2015, when he was placed under suspension following judicial activism. In the same year, the Allahabad High Court ordered a CBI probe into the matter.
The Akhilesh Yadav government though moved the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court’s order for the CBI inquiry. The request was subsequently turned down by the apex court. Pradhan said, “This proves why no government ever wants a real probe into the conduct of these authorities. Their own soft underbellies will be exposed.”
As Yadav Singh faces legal trial and is presently behind bars in a Ghaziabad jail, a serious investigation into the scandal can leave many politicians uncomfortable. Close on the heels of these probes, the income tax department and Enforcement Directorate also conducted raids against prominent people, including Anand Kumar, the brother of former chief minister and BSP supremo Mayawati. While benami (unaccounted) property worth several hundred crores belonging to him has been reportedly attached, further action is still awaited, as, observers say, political calculations probably keep investigating agencies’ hands tied.
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