Lucknow, Sept 21: The Comptroller Auditor General report has red-flagged irregularities worth over Rs 97,000 crore under the erstwhile Uttar Pradesh government, led by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

As per the findings of the CAG, total of 2,55,023 utilisation certificates are pending for funds granted between July 2014 to March 2017 to various departments under the UP government.

The maximum number of irregularities have been clocked by the panchayati raj department, which has failed to issue certificates for amounts granted to the tune of Rs 25,4990.95 crores. Similarly, the education and social welfare department have not submitted certificates for funds to the tune of Rs 25,693.52 crore and Rs 26,927.49 crore, respectively.

The CAG has asked the Yogi Adityanath government to stop further supply of funds to the above-mentioned departments, till the utilisation certificates are not issued. It has also asked the government to probe the alleged misutilisation of funds.

Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister and spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said the government will take a suitable action after studying the contents of the CAG report.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party has denied any wrongdoing, saying the party is ready for an investigation. SP spokesperson Sunil Yadav said similar CAG audit reports had implicated BJP-ruled Maharashtra and Gujarat governments as well. "But corruption was not found," he said, further adding that the CAG had also erred on the 2G spectrum allocation case.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 21, 2018 06:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).