M A I N   N E W S

Noida Land Scam
Four-year jail for UP’s former Chief Secretary
Shahira Naim/TNS

Lucknow, December 7
Former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Neera Yadav was today arrested following a CBI special court in Ghaziabad convicting her in a land scam case and awarding her a four-year jail term.

The once senior most bureaucrat of the state was found guilty of being involved in a massive land scam in Noida during her 1994-96 tenure as the chairperson-cum-chief executive of the Noida Development Authority.

According to sources, she was visibly happy today when the court cleared her name in the Kailash Hospital case. The court also cleared the name of Mahesh Sharma, the owner of Kailash hospital. But her composure disappeared and she broke down when the judge pronounced her guilty in the allotment of land in different sectors and in commercial Sector 18 in Noida during her tenure as the head of the Noida's Development Authority.

The cases pertaining to allotment of plots by flouting all rules and procedures by Yadav. The CBI had registered the cases on the orders of the apex court in a writ petition filed by the Noida Entrepreneurs Association in 1997 that had alleged large-scale bungling in the allotment of land in different sectors and in commercial Sector 18 during Yadav’s tenure in Noida.

Neera Yadav, a 1971 batch IAS officer, has often hogged the limelight for wrong reasons. Apart from large-scale allotment of plots overnight in Sector 18, Noida, she had also been accused of having allotted 54 plots, including two to her own daughters. The list of beneficiaries included members of the judiciary, ministers, highly placed central and state government officials.

During her tenure as the CEO of Noida she had allegedly gone out of the way and favoured a private hospital and a big industrial company. The CBI court also held Flex CEO Ashok Chaturvedi guilty in the case and also sent him to jail.

However, Yadav managed to dodge trial for years hiding behind the law that requires permission from the state government to allow investigation against a public servant.

The first female IAS to be promoted to the post of the Chief Secretary of the state during the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government, was unceremoniously removed from the post on October 6, 2005 following a Supreme Court order.

The Supreme Court, taking a serious note of Neera Yadav’s infamous role in the Noida land distribution scam, had instructed the state government to transfer Yadav to some other post. She had then been sent to the Board of Revenue.

She is wife of a former IPS officer Mahindra Singh Yadav who later joined the BJP and not only became an MLC but also chairperson of the Vidhan Parishad.

Neera Yadav was chosen as one of the three most corrupt IAS officers in a secret ballot by the state IAS Association in 1997.

Interestingly two of them - A P Singh and Neera Yadav- had been promoted to become the Chief Secretary by the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government and removed on the orders of the apex court.