Twelve transfers in five years, an illegal suspension order, a fabricated charge sheet, denial of promotion and a spoiled ACR. This is what Sanjiv Chaturvedi,a young forest service officer,was awarded by the Haryana government.His crime He unearthed a multi-crore scam involving senior officials, implemented Supreme Courts orders preventing a wildlife sanctuary from being destroyed and stopped government money from being spent on private land of politically influential people.For three years, the PMO, state information commission,environment ministry,Central Administrative Tribunal and the cabinet secretariat tried to stop the relentless harassment of the young officer,but the Haryana chief minister B S Hoodas office paid no heed.Ministers,officials in the CMs office and senior bureaucrats continued to hound Chaturvedi at every possible chance.
Now a report prepared by two Central government officials A K Srivastava,inspector general of forests,and Shally Ranjan,assistant inspector general of forests,at the instance of the cabinet secretary has uncovered the tale of how the Haryana government hounded this whistleblower. Recommending that the Centre revoke the chargesheet against the official and provide him immediate relief,the inquiry panel has noted that the persecution was overseen by the then forest minister Kiran Chaudhary,two OSDs in Haryana CMs office,and senior state government officials. TOI first reported on his case three years ago when his victimisation and fight with corruption in the state had just begun.
The two-member committee has noted in the report that,It is a classic case of the state government itself breaching the law,protecting the violators and punishing the officer who tried to uphold the rule of law. The committee has recommended action against the then forest minister Choudhary;the then principal chief conservator of forests of Haryana J K Rawat;finance commissioner and principal secretary Keshani Anand Arora;another finance commissioner and principal secretary (Forests) H C Disodia,and the then conservator forests M M Joshi. The committee has also recommended a CBI enquiry into the roles of politicians like Chaudhary and their appointees,like the two OSDs in CM Hoodas office B R Beri and R D Sheokand.
The committee members have concluded that Chaturvedi tried to prevent destruction of the Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary by politically influential people.The committee underlines the lengths to which the Haryana authorities went to harass the IFS official.All the powers available with the vested interests in the state government,including suspension,issuing charge-sheet & keeping it pending for more than three years, frequent transfers, slapping false cases,etc. were applied on the officer. The environment ministry is now expected to take action on the report.
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(SOURCE-TOI)
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