Why is Akhilesh Yadav so generous to this IAS officer in UP?

The expenditure of public money to the tune of more than Rs.1 crore in a single year on fuel and electricity bills by IAS officer Anurag Yadav has raised questions about the former Lucknow district magistrate who is known for his proximity to the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav paid Rs.75.10 lakh as the electricity bill of his office and residence in 2012-13. Besides this, he footed bills of as much as Rs.67.02 lakh in purchasing diesel and petrol and spent Rs.34.45 lakh on new vehicles during this period.

Dubious
In the very first year of his appointment as the Lucknow district magistrate, Yadav had also paid Rs.11.60 lakh for miscellaneous expenses on his office, Rs.4.96 lakh on telephone bills, Rs.4.45 lakh on payment to labourers, Rs.2.42 lakh on stationery, Rs.1.08 lakh on furniture and Rs.1.41 lakh on maintenance of computers.

An IAS officer of the 2000 batch, Yadav was the Lucknow district magistrate from March 2012 to February 2014. The information about his exorbitant expenditure came out in the public domain after Lucknow-based social activist Sanjay Sharma filed an RTI application seeking details of the expenditure of the DM's office.

"Interestingly, these expenses were five to fifteen times more than what was spent by his predecessor and successor," Sharma said. "While those who earn Rs.33 a day are not considered as poor and kept out of BPL schemes, these officers don't mind spending public money on themselves...," the social activist claimed, and sought a probe into the spending of the bureaucrat.

In February this year, the SP government had put Yadav on the wait list and replaced him with Allahabad District Magistrate Rajshekhar in Lucknow.