New Delhi: A video appeal by an Indian medical student from Ukraine, who is also a village Pradhan in Uttar Pradesh’s Hardoi, has put her in trouble as the administration has decided to probe possible financial irregularities and how her gram sabha account was functioning in her absence.
In the video, uploaded a couple of days back, Vaishali Yadav, the pradhan of Tera Pursaili village, said she was stranded in trouble-torn Ukraine and needed help. She also stated that she was studying medicine at a college there.
The case came to light when a BJP MLA posted a tweet alleging that Vaishali had made the video to allegedly defame the BJP government.
Bihar BJP MLA Anil Kumar took to his Twitter handle and wrote that when the police ‘arrested’ Vaishali, she had said that she put out the video on the instructions of her father.
But when contacted, Hardoi Superintendent of Police Rajesh Dwivedi said that there has been no police action against Vaishali as she is in Romania.
Meanwhile, Vaishali's father Mahendra Yadav, who is a Samajwadi Party leader and a former block pramukh, said that his daughter had gone to Ukraine to pursue her medical course and is currently in Romania.
Mahendra further said that she had come to Hardoi last year during which she had contested, won the gram pradhan election, and took part in a Gram Sabha meeting.
“The gram pradhan has to take part in at least two meetings in a year and Vaishali will take part in the second meeting of the gram sabha after she returns,” news agency PTI quoted Mahendra as saying.
Taking note of the viral video, the administration has initiated a probe into the bank accounts of the gram sabha, Hardoi's Chief Development Officer (CDO) Akanksha Rana told PTI on Wednesday.
Rana said that the village pradhan did not require any formal permission to go abroad for studies and that the administration's priority right now is to ensure her safe return from Ukraine.
The administration will investigate if there has been any financial irregularities in the gram sabha bank account and after a proper enquiry, the account may be seized, the CDO added.