‘ Take small bribes but don’t loot’-UP PWD Minister

‘ Take small bribes but don’t loot’

Piyush Srivastava/ Lucknow

UP CM Akhilesh Yadav should be thankful that the assembly elections are over. Or else, a controversial statement by his uncle and PWD minister Shivpal Singh Yadav could have cost him dear. The minister said in Etah on Thursday that those officers who work hard could steal a bit of public money, but they should avoid “ big loots”. “ If you work hard, your act of stealing can be acceptable. But don’t go for dacoity,” he said. The PWD minister was addressing officers in the district vigilance and monitoring committee meeting, which was convened to review the development works. Yadav’s equally casual statement on Nithari killing just before 2007 Assembly election was one of the factors behind the SP’s humiliating defeat at the hands of Mayawati- led BSP. It was only last month that the PWD minister had said that the engineers would be buried in the roads if any pothole was found. But leader Swami Prasad Maurya said, “ The PWD minister is known for giving importance to corrupt officers. This is the reason he is encouraging them to steal