Lucknow:
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district, who was allegedly abducted by a minister on Tuesday and went missing after that, has re-joined office. He returned to work in the presence of the local Superintendent of Police and other officials.
The minister, who was accused of kidnapping the CMO, SP Singh, has resigned after an embarrassed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told him to and also at the behest of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had promised action in the matter.
Mulayam Singh Yadav said, "Ministers should conduct themselves better. If there are accusations against any minister, it weakens the Samajwadi Party. We don't want to run a government where ministers have to face any allegations."
He also said "there wasn't enough time", pointing to the 2014 general elections, warning ministers that there should be an immediate improvement in the way ministers work.
While the party chief was asking his ministers to behave better, the supporters of the minister who resigned protested outside the CMO's house. The CMO has been missing from home since the incident last Tuesday.
Vinod Singh was the minister for revenue and rehabilitation. On Tuesday night, he allegedly abducted the Chief Medical Officer SP Singh from his residence in Gonda in central Uttar Pradesh in an attempt to force him to hire the minister's candidates as doctors for the National Rural Health Mission scheme. The list of hires had been completed by a committee which included the Medical Officer. The minister allegedly wanted it revised.
It reportedly took the intervention of senior officials of the district to secure the CMO's release that night. He was then sent to the safety of state capital Lucknow, about 100 km away. CMOs are government officials who help set and implement public health policies.
The UP government has ordered an investigation into the incident amid much hue and cry. The same minister is allegedly involved in three other criminal cases.
The resignation comes as UP's 39-year-old Chief Minister confronts allegations of lawlessness in his state. When he was voted into power earlier this year with a massive landslide, Mr Akhilesh Yadav had promised to end the "goonda raj" in Uttar Pradesh. His own partymen have tested that resolve time and again.