Lucknow, March 6 :     A senior superintendent of police, an IPS officer posted in Ghazipur, has been given marching orders by chief minister Kalyan Singh for refusing a government order asking policemen of the district to contribute one day's salary to build a government park for the 'beautification' of the town. Ghazipur is known for its seamy underbelly of narcotics smuggling and its assembly line of powerful east Uttar Pradesh dons. Superintendent Anand Swaroop, who was posted here six months ago, had taken on a powerful lobby of east Uttar Pradesh politicians and was regularly sending reports to the state intelligence department on the mafia-politician nexus in the district. Soon, demands were raised by powerful ministers in the Kalyan Singh-government including a senior minister who is a member of the state Legislative Council. Last night, the government announced Anand's transfer to a nondescript post in Lucknow. However, the events which led to the transfer have baffled the top brass of the state police who have expressed shock at the treatment meted out to the officer. The Ghazipur district administration decided to build a park in the middle of the town as part of a beautification drive. It came up with an unique way of funding the project since neither the administration nor the public works department had funds. The administration asked government employees, including the police rank and file, to contribute a day's salary for the park. While district magistrate Rajan Shukla got employees of departments to pay up, Anand, the district police chief, refused. 'A constable or a sub-inspector just cannot afford it. Under no circumstances can you ask a government servant to part with his salary by force. Moreover, the money was being collected for a beautification project which had nothing to do with the police who frequently get transferred. So I refused,' he told The Telegraph. This was just the beginning of his problems. In the state's interim budget, no provision has been made for increased salaries to government employees after the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission. The government passed an order to all district magistrates that salary arrears of employees should be paid out of the Transitory Regulation Fund (TRF) as per rules. In the case of the Ghazipur police however, this was not done. Soon after rejecting the government demand of giving up one day's salary, the police chief asked for salary arrears to be paid from the TRF as directed by the state government. The district magistrate refused saying several 'technical formalities' were not completed. The arrears were cleared only after the police force virtually threatened to revolt. Sources in the police department here mentioned that soon after Swaroop decided not to let the force part with their salaries, calls for his ouster increased. 'The real reason was to get him out of the way because he was making life uncomfortable for several powerful people. Even on the issue of salaries, Swaroop's stand is commendable and the entire force is behind him,' said an officer of the rank of additional director-general of police. However, an official protest against the manner in which the police chief of a criminally-sensitive district like Ghazipur was removed, is ruled out. 'Gone are the days when the top brass of the police took on chief ministers in protest against what is fundamentally wrong. All protests and murmurs will only be in private,' said a top-level IPS officer. The Ghazipur district magistrate and the government spokesman were not available for comment.