UP: After offering to quit, Dinesh Khatik meets Adityanath and says will continue to be minister
In a letter to Amit Shah, the state water resources minister had claimed that he was being sidelined and officials do not listen to him because he is a Dalit.
Two days after he offered to resign alleging caste discrimination, Uttar Pradesh Water Resources minister Dinesh Khatik on Thursday met Chief Minister Adityanath and said he will continue working in his post, the Hindustan Times reported.
In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Khatik had on Tuesday claimed that he was being sidelined and officials do not listen to him because he is a Dalit. He also alleged irregularities in the transfer of officials.
“I have put up my issues before the chief minister and action will be taken on them,” the minister said on Thursday. Swatantra Dev Singh, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet minister of the Water Resources department and chief of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was present during Khatik’s meeting with Adityanath.
Khatik, a two-time MLA, praised Adityanath saying he has zero tolerance towards corruption. He also described Singh as his elder brother.
Khatik is the third among at least three state ministers who are reportedly unhappy about the functioning of the BJP government, barely four months after the party returned to power in Uttar Pradesh.
In a letter dated July 4, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who also holds the medicine and health portfolio, had highlighted irregularities in the transfer of doctors in his department. He sought an explanation from Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health, Amit Mohan Prasad.
Public Works Department Minister Jitin Prasada was earlier reportedly upset about Adityanath’s move to suspend five officials, including his officer on special duty, following allegations of irregularities in the transfer and posting of engineers, PTI reported.
Prasada who switched from the Congress to the BJP last year, months before the polls, however, on Wednesday said there was “no question” of being upset as “everyone knows” the chief minister’s policy of zero tolerance to corruption.