Lucknow, April 25: An FIR for fraud and irregularities was on Wednesday lodged against former Uttar Pradesh minister Mohd Azam Khan and four others in a recruitment matter pertaining to the Jal Nigam, an official said.

During the previous Samajwadi Party government under Akhilesh Yadav, more than 1,300 recruitments were done in the Jal Nigam and there were scores of allegation of irregularities and favouritism against the minister, the official said.

The Yogi Adityanath government had set up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the matter. Khan was the chairman of the Jal Nigam at the time these recruitments were made.

The SIT had raided the Jal Nigam office in September last year and seized many documents and files related to the mass recruitment.

Both Azam Khan and retired IAS official S.P. Singh, who was Secretary, Urban Development, at the time of the alleged scam have already recorded their statements with the SIT. The SIT has also recorded statement of an aide to the minister. 

The FIR also names S.P. Singh, Managing Director P.K. Ashudani, and Chief Engineer Anil Kumar Khare.

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ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.