Need to retain Rama Raman as Noida CEO for ongoing projects, UP govt tells HC

The government’s stand before the high court came on a day the state removed Pravir Kumar as the chairman of the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities. Kumar has been posted as chairman, UP State Roadways Transport Corporation, and additional resident commissioner of UP and New Delhi.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday told the Allahabad High Court that it wanted to retain senior IAS officer Rama Raman as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Noida Authority.

The high court had seized CEO Rama Raman’s powers on July 1 in response to a petition filed by a Noida resident. (HT photo)

The government’s stand before the high court came on a day the state removed Pravir Kumar as the chairman of the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities. Principal secretary, energy, infrastructure and industrial development Sanjay Agarwal has been given additional charge of the posts held by Kumar.

Kumar has been posted as chairman, UP State Roadways Transport Corporation, and additional resident commissioner of UP and New Delhi.

Though the reason behind Kumar’s removal was immediately not known, sources said the IAS officer may have been shunted for ‘not performing up to expectations’ of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The high court had seized CEO Raman’s powers on July 1 in response to a petition by Noida resident Jitendra Kumar Goyal who had questioned how Raman could be given the charge of both the CEO of Noida authority and chairman of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities.

The court had later asked the state government if it could shunt Raman out as the Noida authority’s CEO.

UP’s chief standing counsel Ramesh Upadhyay informed the bench of Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Yashwant Varma on Tuesday that the government had decided to retain Raman as he was necessary in supervising the construction of Noida’s next phase of Metro lines (scheduled to start operation from March 2017) and other projects worth `5,000 crores.

The judges after hearing the arguments deferred the hearing of the case till August 19 and asked the state to place on record the transfer policy of IAS officers and rules, if any, that surround it.