Lucknow, Oct 16 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh government Tuesday removed R.M. Srivastava from the post of Principal Secretary (Home), days after two other officials of the home department were suspended over the controversial Ram temple letter issue.

Srivastava has been replaced by Anil Kumar Gupta, who was posted as member of the Revenue Board.

Earlier, Gupta had also served as the Industrial and Infrastructure Development Commissioner.

A source said that the decision was taken at the highest level as the government wanted to send a stern message to the bureaucracy that people ending up embarrassing the state government will not be spared.

Srivastava was hand picked at the time of the government formation March 2012 by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Despite his apologies in front of the media, Srivastava paid for the goof up in which a letter issued by the home department spoke of a meeting to be held in Lucknow with police and administrative officials to discuss the "construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the lines of the Somnath temple in Gujarat".

As the letter found its way to the media, the opposition pounced on the Samajwadi Party government and accused it of conniving with communal forces.