Ashish Patel, the minister for technical education in the Yogi Adityanath-led government, has said that if anything were to happen to him, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) should be blamed as he was being targeted for his work.
Ashish has been in the eye of a storm ever since recruitments and promotions in institutes that fall under his department have been questioned. One of the top leader targeting him is his own sister-in-law, Pallavi Patel, who sat on a daylong dharna against him recently when the Vidhan Sabha was in session.
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Ashish is the husband of Anupriya Patel, the minister of state for health. Pallavi alleged that under Ashish, some 250 lecturers have been given undue promotions and made principals in various polytechnic colleges. She claimed that if such appointments were made directly, then backward castes and Dalits would have benefited from reservation.
Ashish said the government’s information department is running a ‘media trial’ against him and that the promotions were made under the watch of ‘the most honest’ IAS officer, referring to Principal Secretary (Technical Education) M Devraj.
Meanwhile, Ashish's supporters said that he has upheld the principles of social justice, pointing out that nine of the 10 engineering colleges in the state, the post of director or acting director was occupied by those in the general category.
After he took charge, four of these were occupied by Other Backward Castes. In the four new engineering colleges that have been opened since he took charge, two appointees on these posts are from OBC, one is from the Scheduled Caste and only one is from the general category.
The Azad Adhikar Sena, headed by former IPS Amitabh Thakur, has lent its support to demands for a CBI investigation against Patel. After the first allegation of irregularities was made against Patel he had asked Yogi Adityanath to have an inquiry conducted into the whole matter. Patel has also said that if the Prime Minister would ask him to resign, he would do so in a second.
