MP Govt. promoted incompetent non-civil service officers to IAS key posts: Congress

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, (MPCC), has charged the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled state government of nepotism and large-scale irregularities and corruption in the selection of “incompetent and ineligible” non-Civil Service Officers to be promoted to the Indian Administrative Service (selection quota) for three vacant posts.

Addressing a Press conference here K. K. Mishra, MPCC spokesman, alleged that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and five of his ministerial colleagues are directly involved who violated the set norms of selection for IAS cadre from the non-Civil Service Officers of the state.

“There has been transaction of huge money and they have charged Rs. 3 to 5 crores under the table to get their corrupt and incompetent cronies’ names included in the final list for approval of IAS cadre by the Union Public Services Commission, (UPSC) , Mishra alleged.

Apart from Chief Minister the others involved in the scam are: Finance Minister Raghavji, Commerce & Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, Jail Minister Jagdish Devda, Water Resources Minister Jayant Malaiya and Women & Child Development Minister Mrs. Ranjana Baghel. They managed to get names of their “dear ones “ incorporated in the list sent to the UPSC instead of “deserving” candidates, Mishra alleged.

Mishra said he has lodged a complaint with the Prime Minister's Office, (PMO), the UPSC and the Union Personnel Department in this regard to cancel the said list and the entire process and begin the whole procedure all anew to select competent officers with upright image and honest service records.

He said if this list of corrupt and incompetent officers is not cancelled forthwith then MPCC will knock the doors of Madhya Pradesh High Court through PIL and get justice done to the aggrieved hard working officers who have been overlooked despite having unblemished service records.

In utter disregard to the provisions and norms fixed for proposing panels for eligible officers, different departments of the State Government adopted different norms for selecting the panel of officers, which were best suited for their choice ones. The common deviations/irregularities in proposing the panel of officers were: (i) the officers who had not been working continuously on the post equivalent to Deputy Collector, (ii) who have not been working with the affairs of the State Government, (iii) who have been penalized in disciplinary actions in serious service matters, (iv) the Vigilance Commissioner of the State has adversely commented against such officers and (v) for evaluation of officers’ the various departments have made discriminating criterion, some have considered five year’s ACRs, some eight years and some even 10 years to adjust their favourites.

Elaborating Mishra said the Madhya Pradesh Government has recommended names of officials facing charges of corruption to the UPSC, while changing the recommendations of the screening committee headed by the Chief Secretary to State Government Rakesh Sahni. He alleged that Chief Minister Chouhan amended the list of officials recommended for the IAS cadre by a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary and comprising of senior IAS officers Rakesh Bansal and Sudeep Khanna clearly indicates that norms were not followed in the selection process . The list send to UPSC on December 3 this year has some names which were not cleared by the screening committee, he said.

While Chief Minister Chouhan included the name of his friend Nitin Nandgaokar, Joint Director, WRD and OSD to WRD Minister, by removing the name of Varun Verma, Additional Director, Directorate of Treasury & Accounts, Madhya Pradesh after holding back the file for a month.

Nandgaokar from 2004 to 2007 was on Furlough Scheme and in this period he got employment in a private company M/s CARE India Limited at Bhopal. As he did not work for three years on any of the post he didn’t fulfill the condition of eight years continuous service on 01-01-2009.

As his three years’ ACRs (2004-07) were not written, being on Furlough Scheme, his last five years’ ACRs cannot be evaluated. However, the department manipulated the lacunae in Nandgaokar’s case . His earlier ACRs of 1996 to1999 were taken into consideration in place of three years’ unavailable ACRs. This is a gross violation of the prescribed rules.

It may be pointed out here that Furlough is a scheme of the Madhya Pradesh Government introduced in 2002 in which any officer can withdraw himself from government service and undertake a private employment for a period of three to five years. In this period no promotion or seniority may be given.

Meanwhile, Verma coming to know from sources about his name being deleted from the list shot a complaint regarding large-scale irregularities and corruption in the selection to the IAS cadre to Vijay Singh, Member UPSC, who is also ex-Chief Secretary to Govt. of MP. A copy of the same was also sent to Prof. D. P. Agrawal, Chairman UPSC, New Delhi.

Verma in his complaint stated that on 03-11-2009 the screening committee which scrutinized various nominations and filtered most of the disputed nominations still two-three names one of Sanjay Gupta and the other Mrs. Sandhya Vyas could not be weeded out. The concerning file which was then forwarded for Chief Minister’s approval was put on hold for at least one month as the name of “CM’s bosom friend Nitin Nandgaokar did not figure in the list.

He wrote: “I have learned from reliable sources that the committee had cleared my name and it was included in the list of 15 officers short-listed by the said committee. To accommodate his favourite Chief Minister Chouhan struck down my name ………... Nitin’s name was included in the list and the list has been forwarded to UPSC for further action”.

The letter concluded with the prayer: “ As you are aware of the political interference in the state of Madhya Pradesh I have a strong trust and faith that you will ensure that justice is done to all eligible hands and competent officers who have been brushed aside”.

A similar complaint has been lodged with the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Government of India , by 12 aggrieved officers. The copy of this complaint was also send to UPSC chairman and Secretary, department of Personnel & Training, Govt. of India, for information and necessary action. These officers are: KK Tiwari, managing Director, AKVN, Gwalior; AN Sarkar, General Manager, AKVK, Bhopal; JN Vyas, General Manager, MP TRIFED; Promod Sharma, Director, Local Funds, MP Gwalior; Ashok Sharma, Joint Director , Co-operatives, Bhopal; Satish Chand Dubey, Joint Director, Rajya Shiksha Kendra, Bhopal; Mrs. Manju Sharma, Executive Director (Finance), Civil Supplies Corporation, Bhopal; Manoj Shrivastava, Additional Director, Mandi Board, Bhopal; Aditi Tripathi, Under Secretary, Finance Department, Bhopal; Virendra Kumar, Under Secretary, Finance Department, Bhopal; RN Mishra, Joint Director, Director of Treasury and Accounts, MP Bhopal and Dinesh Dwivedi, Finance Officer, Nagar Nigam Bhopal.

(pervezbari@eth.net)
 

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