Bhubaneswar | Monday, Nov 19 2007 IST
The Vigilance Department has submitted a chargesheet against eight IAS officers of Orissa cadre on the allegation of corruption charges and acquisition of disproportionate assets, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said here today.
To a question of Mr Sitakant Mohapatra (Cong), Mr Patnaik said in the Assembly that investigation against eight other IAS officers was in progress.
The eight officers, chargesheeted by the Vigilance Department, are Mr Santosh Kumar Mishra, Mr Ramesh Charan Behera(both serving), Mr Madan Mohan Mohanty, Mr Phani Bhushan Das, Mr Chittaranjan Pal, Mr Sanjiv Kumar Ray, Mr Balram Rout and Mr Arunodaya Swain (all retired).
The Chief Minister said the government had made a supplementary provision of Rs 20 lakh for the setting up two special courts, one each at Cuttack and Bhubaneswar to deal with the caess against the public figure and senior officials.
Mr Patnaik said the Orissa High Court had been requested to suggest staffing pattern for the special courts and send a panel of names for appointment as judges besides a panel of names of judicial officers of the rank of Additional District Judge for appointment of Authorised Officers under the Act.
-- (UNI)
Source http://news.webindia123.com/news/ar_showdetails.asp?id=711190879&cat=&n_date=20071119
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
A Real Gem in IAS
Sanjay Pandey shot to fame in 1997 when as deputy commissioner of police he took on his political bosses in the shoe scam in which millions of rupees meant for cobblers were allegedly siphoned off by politicians, bureaucrats and shoe manufacturers.
Not surprisingly, Pandey was shunted out of Mumbai. A few years later Pandey, hailed as upright, chose to quit the police force and move to Delhi where he joined Tata Consultancy Services.
Currently, he runs a cyber security business in Delhi.
He is back in the news after announcing that he will contest the Lok Sabha election from the Mumbai North Central constituency, which houses Dharavi, Asia's largest slum settlement. It is an area he had policed before.
In an interview to Deputy Managing Editor Amberish K Diwanji he explains why he has decided to join politics.
You graduated from IIT, Kanpur, and yet chose to join the police force. What motivated you to join the civil services?
This happened when well-known civil servant (M N) Buch visited our campus. He asked students about where they would like to be 10, 20 years later in terms of helping society. He gave an analogy of how a person can help society. He said if society is like a huge mass (weight), then to lift it we need a lever supported on a fulcrum. And he said how far from the fulcrum we are able to exert our weight on the lever will decide how much we can lift the mass. The further away you are, the more you can lift. Vice versa, the nearer you are, the more effort you need to lift.
Buch said workers are right next to the lever and hence need too much strength or too many people. Next come the engineers, who make road, machines and with their knowledge help lift society. Even better are teachers, who teach students who in turn go out and do positive things thus having a multiplier effect. Next come civil servants, those who implement policies for change to help society. And then come the politicians, those who make policies.
But the person who is at the end of the lever, who individually can lift huge sections of society, are visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi. This is something I believe in.
I did not attend this lecture but I heard about it and it affected me a lot. I decided I wanted to do as much as I could so I decided to first join the civil service and now, politics. Also, when I was doing my computer science at IIT (the first batch, class of 1983) many of us were motivated to join the bureaucracy with the hope of helping society.
Do you in retrospect regret your decision to join the police and not take up engineering, especially since IT is doing well?
No, I don't. First, as an engineer, I feel you are way down in your contribution to society. Second, regarding the Indian situation, I don't think Indian software is doing anything related to software. I think [construction firm] Hiranandnani making houses for Indians is doing more than what the Indian software industry is doing.
There is not one software product that has developed out of this country for this country. No doubt, we are making money, but it is like torrential rainfall. Today there is outsourcing, tomorrow there is no outsourcing. Then what will happen to these firms that has employed thousands of people?
You quit the police force because of corruption among politicians. Yet now you want to become a part of this very set of politicians.
I'd like to make a very pertinent point. Corruption also happens because we have a system that allows such corruption to flourish. Our laws in India today are so outdated they breed corruption. Do you know that before you move a motor vehicle on the road, you have committed some offence? Read the Motor Vehicles Act and find out.
No one has made any attempt to reform these laws. So much so that many things that should not be considered part of corruption is now considered so.
Let me give you an example. When I was in the United States, I could fill up my taxes myself. But here despite the existence of Saral [direct tax payment], I still need a chartered accountant to fill up my taxes.
Let me also say something. Every corporation in this country evades taxes. I have my own small company. My accountant actually asks me whether I want to show profits or loss. The option is with the accountant to decide what result I want to show. Our antiquated laws and regulations promote corruption.
You were once a part of the Mumbai police force, which today has a commissioner of police and an additional commissioner of police, besides other senior officers in jail. Why did the situation come to such a pass?
Without sounding like I am defending my former colleagues let me say that corruption exists in all walks of life. Much worse corruption exists in other areas. I have now worked in the private sector and know that corrupt deals between the private sector and the government actually make our policies, all for the benefit of a few rather than society at large. The corruption in the police is merely a reflection of society. The police are corrupt, no doubt.
It has often been said that one way to save our police force, or bureaucrats, is to remove political interference. Do you agree?
I have been hearing this quite often and I am not so sure. When a person joins the civil service as a government servant he knows that the politician will be his master. That is the case in any democracy. So when I hear bureaucrats complain about political interference, I think it is nonsense. Which servant anywhere in the world is without a master?
Also if we don't have politicians as the master then we have to devise a whole new structure to control the government servants. The servants can't be the masters. In my case I knew this was the system that I had accepted and when I was unwilling to stay on I took the option I had of quitting service.
What motivated you to become a politician?
If you accept that there has to be a government, if the government controls the entire political system, you have to accept that the largest and biggest work happens only through the government. The private sector is so limited. Which major project are they handing, how many private sector employees are there…
But isn't too much government in too many places the problem with our country?
Give me an alternative. I don't think there is an alternative to government in this country. Today, we talk about the five metropolises that all the television stations cover. But go out of the metropolises, go out of Mumbai, and we still have bullock carts. That is the reality of this country. Which private sector is working to change all this?
I am not promoting the welfare state. It may not have done very well for the welfare of the people. In fact, huge corruption exists here. But the fact remains that the best and the biggest that you see are in the metropolitan cities.
So you don't believe that India is shining?
You saw the mess in Dharavi today. Where was the shine? The 90-feet (wide) road was so narrow (about 10 feet wide only). Where is India shining?
Which party are you planning to join?
The question, which party, bewilders me. The entire world believes that a candidate means a party. I don't quite subscribe to the view that the party comes before the candidate. The candidate comes before the party. Perhaps I am questioning the basis of government formation and I will do that if I have the power to do so.
If there are people who want candidates to represent them, and those candidates in turn can form the government, why can't it be that way? Why do I have to get into this party business to get elected? What is worse is that we have so many parties that don't even get five percent of the votes? Perhaps the Election Commission should look at disbarring parties that get less than five percent of the votes.
What do you hope to achieve as a politician?
The thing I hope to achieve first is to take care of my constituency. It is sad that after all these years, Dharavi is still Dharavi. If people have the right to a house, they should have the right to the basic amenities. People in Dharavi are being provided with latrines but they lack the facilities to keep the latrines clean. The metropolis surrounding Dharavi has prospered, but not Dharavi.
Let me also very frankly make a statement. A lot of these NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have come to Dharavi and earned their reputation in Dharavi. But what have they done? They are perpetuating the poverty of Dharavi simply to keep themselves relevant. Why should a slum remain a slum? I want one NGO to come out and tell me that they have a plan to make Dharavi into a kind of cooperative housing society that exists elsewhere in Mumbai.
Anything else you want to say?
One thing I want to convey is that this country is being governed by 50-odd politicians for 50-odd years who are have crossed 50 many times over.
Independent India is being governed by those who were born when India was not free and whose thinking reflects that era, not the thinking of free India. I think it is time that we are now governed by younger politicians.
Source : http://www.rediff.com/election/2004/apr/22einter1.htm
Not surprisingly, Pandey was shunted out of Mumbai. A few years later Pandey, hailed as upright, chose to quit the police force and move to Delhi where he joined Tata Consultancy Services.
Currently, he runs a cyber security business in Delhi.
He is back in the news after announcing that he will contest the Lok Sabha election from the Mumbai North Central constituency, which houses Dharavi, Asia's largest slum settlement. It is an area he had policed before.
In an interview to Deputy Managing Editor Amberish K Diwanji he explains why he has decided to join politics.
You graduated from IIT, Kanpur, and yet chose to join the police force. What motivated you to join the civil services?
This happened when well-known civil servant (M N) Buch visited our campus. He asked students about where they would like to be 10, 20 years later in terms of helping society. He gave an analogy of how a person can help society. He said if society is like a huge mass (weight), then to lift it we need a lever supported on a fulcrum. And he said how far from the fulcrum we are able to exert our weight on the lever will decide how much we can lift the mass. The further away you are, the more you can lift. Vice versa, the nearer you are, the more effort you need to lift.
Buch said workers are right next to the lever and hence need too much strength or too many people. Next come the engineers, who make road, machines and with their knowledge help lift society. Even better are teachers, who teach students who in turn go out and do positive things thus having a multiplier effect. Next come civil servants, those who implement policies for change to help society. And then come the politicians, those who make policies.
But the person who is at the end of the lever, who individually can lift huge sections of society, are visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi. This is something I believe in.
I did not attend this lecture but I heard about it and it affected me a lot. I decided I wanted to do as much as I could so I decided to first join the civil service and now, politics. Also, when I was doing my computer science at IIT (the first batch, class of 1983) many of us were motivated to join the bureaucracy with the hope of helping society.
Do you in retrospect regret your decision to join the police and not take up engineering, especially since IT is doing well?
No, I don't. First, as an engineer, I feel you are way down in your contribution to society. Second, regarding the Indian situation, I don't think Indian software is doing anything related to software. I think [construction firm] Hiranandnani making houses for Indians is doing more than what the Indian software industry is doing.
There is not one software product that has developed out of this country for this country. No doubt, we are making money, but it is like torrential rainfall. Today there is outsourcing, tomorrow there is no outsourcing. Then what will happen to these firms that has employed thousands of people?
You quit the police force because of corruption among politicians. Yet now you want to become a part of this very set of politicians.
I'd like to make a very pertinent point. Corruption also happens because we have a system that allows such corruption to flourish. Our laws in India today are so outdated they breed corruption. Do you know that before you move a motor vehicle on the road, you have committed some offence? Read the Motor Vehicles Act and find out.
No one has made any attempt to reform these laws. So much so that many things that should not be considered part of corruption is now considered so.
Let me give you an example. When I was in the United States, I could fill up my taxes myself. But here despite the existence of Saral [direct tax payment], I still need a chartered accountant to fill up my taxes.
Let me also say something. Every corporation in this country evades taxes. I have my own small company. My accountant actually asks me whether I want to show profits or loss. The option is with the accountant to decide what result I want to show. Our antiquated laws and regulations promote corruption.
You were once a part of the Mumbai police force, which today has a commissioner of police and an additional commissioner of police, besides other senior officers in jail. Why did the situation come to such a pass?
Without sounding like I am defending my former colleagues let me say that corruption exists in all walks of life. Much worse corruption exists in other areas. I have now worked in the private sector and know that corrupt deals between the private sector and the government actually make our policies, all for the benefit of a few rather than society at large. The corruption in the police is merely a reflection of society. The police are corrupt, no doubt.
It has often been said that one way to save our police force, or bureaucrats, is to remove political interference. Do you agree?
I have been hearing this quite often and I am not so sure. When a person joins the civil service as a government servant he knows that the politician will be his master. That is the case in any democracy. So when I hear bureaucrats complain about political interference, I think it is nonsense. Which servant anywhere in the world is without a master?
Also if we don't have politicians as the master then we have to devise a whole new structure to control the government servants. The servants can't be the masters. In my case I knew this was the system that I had accepted and when I was unwilling to stay on I took the option I had of quitting service.
What motivated you to become a politician?
If you accept that there has to be a government, if the government controls the entire political system, you have to accept that the largest and biggest work happens only through the government. The private sector is so limited. Which major project are they handing, how many private sector employees are there…
But isn't too much government in too many places the problem with our country?
Give me an alternative. I don't think there is an alternative to government in this country. Today, we talk about the five metropolises that all the television stations cover. But go out of the metropolises, go out of Mumbai, and we still have bullock carts. That is the reality of this country. Which private sector is working to change all this?
I am not promoting the welfare state. It may not have done very well for the welfare of the people. In fact, huge corruption exists here. But the fact remains that the best and the biggest that you see are in the metropolitan cities.
So you don't believe that India is shining?
You saw the mess in Dharavi today. Where was the shine? The 90-feet (wide) road was so narrow (about 10 feet wide only). Where is India shining?
Which party are you planning to join?
The question, which party, bewilders me. The entire world believes that a candidate means a party. I don't quite subscribe to the view that the party comes before the candidate. The candidate comes before the party. Perhaps I am questioning the basis of government formation and I will do that if I have the power to do so.
If there are people who want candidates to represent them, and those candidates in turn can form the government, why can't it be that way? Why do I have to get into this party business to get elected? What is worse is that we have so many parties that don't even get five percent of the votes? Perhaps the Election Commission should look at disbarring parties that get less than five percent of the votes.
What do you hope to achieve as a politician?
The thing I hope to achieve first is to take care of my constituency. It is sad that after all these years, Dharavi is still Dharavi. If people have the right to a house, they should have the right to the basic amenities. People in Dharavi are being provided with latrines but they lack the facilities to keep the latrines clean. The metropolis surrounding Dharavi has prospered, but not Dharavi.
Let me also very frankly make a statement. A lot of these NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have come to Dharavi and earned their reputation in Dharavi. But what have they done? They are perpetuating the poverty of Dharavi simply to keep themselves relevant. Why should a slum remain a slum? I want one NGO to come out and tell me that they have a plan to make Dharavi into a kind of cooperative housing society that exists elsewhere in Mumbai.
Anything else you want to say?
One thing I want to convey is that this country is being governed by 50-odd politicians for 50-odd years who are have crossed 50 many times over.
Independent India is being governed by those who were born when India was not free and whose thinking reflects that era, not the thinking of free India. I think it is time that we are now governed by younger politicians.
Source : http://www.rediff.com/election/2004/apr/22einter1.htm
Friday, October 24, 2008
IAS officer absconding for 8 years gets fresh posting
TIMES NEWS NETWORK TOI Hyderabad Edition 24/10/2008
Hyderabad: Bureaucratic circles are agog over the sudden resurfacing of an IAS officer who has been absent without leave (AWOL) for almost a decade and as to how he managed a posting after that. Subhrendu Bhattacharya, an IAS officer of the 1976 batch, was among the 26 officers who were given new postings.
After being AWOL for about eight years, Bhattacharya was posted as commissioner of inquiries in the general administration department (GAD). Subhrendu first went on casual leave when he was posted as the MD of APIDC on August 1, 2000. He did not report for duty even after the expiry of the leave. Later, Mohammed Shaffiquzzaman, another IAS officer, succeeded him. Three months later, GAD wrote to Shafiquzzaman to report on Subhrendu’s whereabouts. “When the GAD is unaware of his whereabouts, how could it expect me to know,” Shafiquzzaman was said to have written back. It was common knowledge in the bureaucratic circles that Subhrendu was employed in the US.
The question that is being raised is that how can an all India services officer who was literally absconding for eight years be forgiven and given a posting. According to sources, Subhrendu informed the state about his absence only once in his eight years of absence. “When the media speculated as to whether he was alive or dead, he wrote to them last year stating that he was very much alive,” said one official.
The GAD maintains that there was nothing wrong in his posting. “An inquiry is on regarding his long absence without permission,” said a senior GAD official. Sources told TOI that orders for reinstating Subhrendu came from the highest quarters. How Subhrendu was able to convince the powers that be remains a mystery. The officer himself could not be contacted. Some of his colleagues said that he is in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. They also revealed that the officer who had landed in India a couple of months ago was lobbying secretly so that he would be allowed to join back. On being asked the possible reason for the official to come back , one official said: “He has three years of service left. If he serves for that period he will get full retirement benefits.”
Hyderabad: Bureaucratic circles are agog over the sudden resurfacing of an IAS officer who has been absent without leave (AWOL) for almost a decade and as to how he managed a posting after that. Subhrendu Bhattacharya, an IAS officer of the 1976 batch, was among the 26 officers who were given new postings.
After being AWOL for about eight years, Bhattacharya was posted as commissioner of inquiries in the general administration department (GAD). Subhrendu first went on casual leave when he was posted as the MD of APIDC on August 1, 2000. He did not report for duty even after the expiry of the leave. Later, Mohammed Shaffiquzzaman, another IAS officer, succeeded him. Three months later, GAD wrote to Shafiquzzaman to report on Subhrendu’s whereabouts. “When the GAD is unaware of his whereabouts, how could it expect me to know,” Shafiquzzaman was said to have written back. It was common knowledge in the bureaucratic circles that Subhrendu was employed in the US.
The question that is being raised is that how can an all India services officer who was literally absconding for eight years be forgiven and given a posting. According to sources, Subhrendu informed the state about his absence only once in his eight years of absence. “When the media speculated as to whether he was alive or dead, he wrote to them last year stating that he was very much alive,” said one official.
The GAD maintains that there was nothing wrong in his posting. “An inquiry is on regarding his long absence without permission,” said a senior GAD official. Sources told TOI that orders for reinstating Subhrendu came from the highest quarters. How Subhrendu was able to convince the powers that be remains a mystery. The officer himself could not be contacted. Some of his colleagues said that he is in his hometown in Uttar Pradesh. They also revealed that the officer who had landed in India a couple of months ago was lobbying secretly so that he would be allowed to join back. On being asked the possible reason for the official to come back , one official said: “He has three years of service left. If he serves for that period he will get full retirement benefits.”
Interesting Facts
There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create explosion that is equal to an atomic bomb.
To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let you go instantly.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
Every continent begins and ends in the same letter.
Every continent has a city called Rome.
Two thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Right handed people live on average nine years longer than left handed people do.
The sentence ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter in the English language.
No president of the United States was an only child.
TYPEWRITER is one of the longest words that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.
A snail can sleep for 3 years.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
China has more English speakers than the United States.
An average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.
An average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create explosion that is equal to an atomic bomb.
To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let you go instantly.
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
Every continent begins and ends in the same letter.
Every continent has a city called Rome.
Two thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
Right handed people live on average nine years longer than left handed people do.
The sentence ‘the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ uses every letter in the English language.
No president of the United States was an only child.
TYPEWRITER is one of the longest words that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.
A snail can sleep for 3 years.
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
China has more English speakers than the United States.
An average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs in it.
An average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.
CROWNING CORRUPTION: PROMOTION TO IAS SMACKS OF MANIPULATION
Posted on August 11, 2006 by Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
If the judgment of the Supreme Court of India delivered on 04 August 2006 is not wrongly read, it would make it crystal clear that, the last promotion to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from Orissa Administrative Service (OAS) cadre was guided not by principles in force but by extraneous considerations.
It is astonishing that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has shown uncommon agility in dropping any of his ministers on allegation of corruption, is yet to act against the corrupt coterie with the help of which the illegally promoted persons are still drawing the salary they are not entitled to and still enjoying the status they are not qualified for.
I do not think that Naveen Patnaik had any personal role in the promotion that has now been stamped as illegal finally by Supreme Court. But when the State does not rise in right response to observations of the Judiciary to correct the wrong it has perpetrated, he being the holder of the portfolio, who should explain the position?
Let us look at the position from the corridors of the Supreme Court.
Mr. J. P. Agrawal had gone there seeking nullification of an order of the High Court of Orissa. The Supreme Court refused even to admit the case.
Who is J.P.Agrawal?
He is Jagdish Prasad Agrawal, an OAS officer illegally elevated to IAS. In disapproving his promotion to IAS, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had expressed concern over the use of administrative machinery to suppress vital facts about punishment awarded to him for misconduct in the memorandum prepared for the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC). The CAT action, on challenge, had been endorsed by the High Court.
But Agrawal was not the only one whose promotion to IAS smacks of manipulation. We may look into the matter to have a cursory view of how corrupt have become the higher echelon of Orissa bureaucracy.
In 2002 eight officers of OAS were selected to IAS. But the most suitable officers were discarded in favor of the deficient ones.
This was challenged by Shri Aswini Kumar Das, presently the Collector of Puri and Shri Pramod Chandra Patnaik, Collector of Nuapada before the Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No.2/2004.
The crux of their allegations was that these Officers were promoted to the I.A.S. without evaluation of their suitability on the matrix of their complete Service Records and notwithstanding the adverse entries in their Confidential Character Rolls (C.C.R.) and the punishments imposed through disciplinary proceedings. It was specifically alleged that Shri J.P.Agrawal and Shri Satyananda Sethi had got punishment in disciplinary proceedings, but this fact was suppressed. Similarly, when there was a question mark on the integrity of one officer and such adverse entry was not counter balanced by the prescribed authority i.e. the Chief Secretary, he was also selected. Shri Balakrishna Sahu having adverse entry in the C.C.R. and having been superseded in promotion to Senior Class-I and later to Joint Secretary rank, also got selected whereas the two petitioners, Mr. Das and Mr. Patnaik, having unblemished Service Records and �Outstanding� grading for continuous five years were discarded.
Baffling it is that on consideration of the same bunch of C.C.Rs i.e. from 1996-97 to 2000-2001 Mr. Patnaik, who, having continuous Outstanding remarks therein, had superseded others in promotion to the rank of Additional Secretary, was rejected for promotion to I.A.S.whereas the superseded officers bagged the promotion.
Out of the eight officers selected to I.A.S., only three officers had outstanding CCRs for five years and the rest five had no such distinction though one of these five, Raj Kishor Jena, who got the promotion had acquired outstanding remarks only for three months. It is surprising that these five officers have superseded Das and Patnaik who have been continuously placed in outstanding grade for five years and have always been considered unblemished.
On being apprised of this, and on the basis of documented pleadings, the CAT concluded in O.A. No.1255/2003 that the punishments inflicted on Shri J.P.Agrawal did not find place in the A.C.R. folder, as a result of which the Selection Committee did not get opportunity to be aware of such blemishes against any recommended persons. Mentioning about �startling facts� that revealed in course of hearing how some of the selected Officers did not enjoy blemishless career, the CAT had underlined that the Officers to be selected to I.A.S. should be beyond suspicion like the Ceasar’s wife. And, for this, the Selection Committee should review the C.C.Rs of at least eight years instead of five. But, if an Officer is graded as �Outstanding�, his entire service career should be scanned to ensure that his categorization as �Outstanding� can never be questioned on the ground that in the past he did not enjoy blemishless service records. Therefore, the whole selection List was quashed and a review meeting was ordered for.
This order was appealed before the Orissa High Court by Shri Jagdish Prasad Agrawal in W.P. No.13445/2005 and Shri K.C.Mohapatra in W.P. No.13153/2004. A Bench consisting of the Chief Justice and Justice Madan Mohan Das upheld the above judgment of the Tribunal with a modification to the extent that the Selection Committee should see the C.C.Rs of Officers for past five years instead of eight. They relied on the judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of Shri R.K.Das Vrs. Union of India (AIR 1987 SC(593), in which it has been stated that the Committee has to categorize the members of State services on the basis of entries available in their Character Rolls and thereafter to arrange their names in the proposed List in accordance with the principles laid down in Regulation 05. This was mandated to eliminate every possible scope for discrimination through application of different standard or criteria at different times for preparing the List.
Mr. Agrawal had gone against this Order of Orissa High Court.
After refusal of the Supreme Court to interfere with the Verdict of the Orissa High Court, it has been crystal clear that when the eight OAS officers were selected to IAS in 2002, the State Secretariat had been transformed into a breeding place of favoritism and clientelism and the selection was made in stark disregard to administrative impartialism.
As I look back, P.K.Mohanty, the then Chief Secretary, Srinibas Rath, the then Development Commissioner and Arun Kumar Panda, the then R.D.C.- all from Orissa and Gurbachan Singh, Member of U.P.S.C. assisted by Union Joint Secretary S.Jagadeesham comprised the Committee.
They were the senior most members of the bureaucracy. How could they prefer evidently deficient officers to the officers who had been graded �outstanding� for continuous five years in their transparently blemish less service careers? They cannot say that they had not violated administrative acuity in order to select the unsuitable persons they selected. Now they should be asked to say as to why did they do it.
Had they gone through the list of Officers under the Zone of Consideration, Mr. Aswini K. Das and Mr. Promod Chandra Patnaik, the two most suitable officers, I am sure, would never have been discarded. But they did not do it. The Orissa officers did not help the U.P.S.C. and the Union Government in evaluating the suitability of the Officers concerned.
After the CAT verdict the State Government had known that a wrong has been done. It was the duty of the State Government to take correctional steps. But it did not act in that respect. Mohanty, relinquishing the Chief Secretary post has been awarded with the more coveted post of Chairman of Orissa Public Service Commission.
But the two most brilliant and outstanding officers are languishing in the State service cadre whereas the State Exchequer is being exploited for paying them the salary packages applicable to a cadre to which their illegal entrance has been declared null and void.
The State is under Peoples� Representatives. Hence the authority above the Chief Secretary is the Chief Minister. If he has not compelled the Chief Secretary ( P.K.Mohanty as then he was) and his team in the Committee to supersede the most suitable officers by the tainted ones, in this case, he must take steps to punish this fellow for having corrupted administration as discussed above. Steps need be taken to determine the corrupt practices resorted to by each of the members in the concerned Committees in suppressing vital facts and in sloughing over the guiding laws.
The Constitution of India has created Public Service Commissions for only one purpose. That is elimination of favoritism in selection of Union or State Service Officers.
Any violation of this purpose is an offense against the Constitution.
Hence I expect the Chief Minister to understand that it is his duty to bring every offender in the instant case to books as an example of responsible parliamentary rule, and most importantly as a deterrent to any such manipulations in future.
Source Link http://orissamatters.com/2006/08/11/crowning-corruption/
If the judgment of the Supreme Court of India delivered on 04 August 2006 is not wrongly read, it would make it crystal clear that, the last promotion to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from Orissa Administrative Service (OAS) cadre was guided not by principles in force but by extraneous considerations.
It is astonishing that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who has shown uncommon agility in dropping any of his ministers on allegation of corruption, is yet to act against the corrupt coterie with the help of which the illegally promoted persons are still drawing the salary they are not entitled to and still enjoying the status they are not qualified for.
I do not think that Naveen Patnaik had any personal role in the promotion that has now been stamped as illegal finally by Supreme Court. But when the State does not rise in right response to observations of the Judiciary to correct the wrong it has perpetrated, he being the holder of the portfolio, who should explain the position?
Let us look at the position from the corridors of the Supreme Court.
Mr. J. P. Agrawal had gone there seeking nullification of an order of the High Court of Orissa. The Supreme Court refused even to admit the case.
Who is J.P.Agrawal?
He is Jagdish Prasad Agrawal, an OAS officer illegally elevated to IAS. In disapproving his promotion to IAS, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had expressed concern over the use of administrative machinery to suppress vital facts about punishment awarded to him for misconduct in the memorandum prepared for the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC). The CAT action, on challenge, had been endorsed by the High Court.
But Agrawal was not the only one whose promotion to IAS smacks of manipulation. We may look into the matter to have a cursory view of how corrupt have become the higher echelon of Orissa bureaucracy.
In 2002 eight officers of OAS were selected to IAS. But the most suitable officers were discarded in favor of the deficient ones.
This was challenged by Shri Aswini Kumar Das, presently the Collector of Puri and Shri Pramod Chandra Patnaik, Collector of Nuapada before the Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No.2/2004.
The crux of their allegations was that these Officers were promoted to the I.A.S. without evaluation of their suitability on the matrix of their complete Service Records and notwithstanding the adverse entries in their Confidential Character Rolls (C.C.R.) and the punishments imposed through disciplinary proceedings. It was specifically alleged that Shri J.P.Agrawal and Shri Satyananda Sethi had got punishment in disciplinary proceedings, but this fact was suppressed. Similarly, when there was a question mark on the integrity of one officer and such adverse entry was not counter balanced by the prescribed authority i.e. the Chief Secretary, he was also selected. Shri Balakrishna Sahu having adverse entry in the C.C.R. and having been superseded in promotion to Senior Class-I and later to Joint Secretary rank, also got selected whereas the two petitioners, Mr. Das and Mr. Patnaik, having unblemished Service Records and �Outstanding� grading for continuous five years were discarded.
Baffling it is that on consideration of the same bunch of C.C.Rs i.e. from 1996-97 to 2000-2001 Mr. Patnaik, who, having continuous Outstanding remarks therein, had superseded others in promotion to the rank of Additional Secretary, was rejected for promotion to I.A.S.whereas the superseded officers bagged the promotion.
Out of the eight officers selected to I.A.S., only three officers had outstanding CCRs for five years and the rest five had no such distinction though one of these five, Raj Kishor Jena, who got the promotion had acquired outstanding remarks only for three months. It is surprising that these five officers have superseded Das and Patnaik who have been continuously placed in outstanding grade for five years and have always been considered unblemished.
On being apprised of this, and on the basis of documented pleadings, the CAT concluded in O.A. No.1255/2003 that the punishments inflicted on Shri J.P.Agrawal did not find place in the A.C.R. folder, as a result of which the Selection Committee did not get opportunity to be aware of such blemishes against any recommended persons. Mentioning about �startling facts� that revealed in course of hearing how some of the selected Officers did not enjoy blemishless career, the CAT had underlined that the Officers to be selected to I.A.S. should be beyond suspicion like the Ceasar’s wife. And, for this, the Selection Committee should review the C.C.Rs of at least eight years instead of five. But, if an Officer is graded as �Outstanding�, his entire service career should be scanned to ensure that his categorization as �Outstanding� can never be questioned on the ground that in the past he did not enjoy blemishless service records. Therefore, the whole selection List was quashed and a review meeting was ordered for.
This order was appealed before the Orissa High Court by Shri Jagdish Prasad Agrawal in W.P. No.13445/2005 and Shri K.C.Mohapatra in W.P. No.13153/2004. A Bench consisting of the Chief Justice and Justice Madan Mohan Das upheld the above judgment of the Tribunal with a modification to the extent that the Selection Committee should see the C.C.Rs of Officers for past five years instead of eight. They relied on the judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of Shri R.K.Das Vrs. Union of India (AIR 1987 SC(593), in which it has been stated that the Committee has to categorize the members of State services on the basis of entries available in their Character Rolls and thereafter to arrange their names in the proposed List in accordance with the principles laid down in Regulation 05. This was mandated to eliminate every possible scope for discrimination through application of different standard or criteria at different times for preparing the List.
Mr. Agrawal had gone against this Order of Orissa High Court.
After refusal of the Supreme Court to interfere with the Verdict of the Orissa High Court, it has been crystal clear that when the eight OAS officers were selected to IAS in 2002, the State Secretariat had been transformed into a breeding place of favoritism and clientelism and the selection was made in stark disregard to administrative impartialism.
As I look back, P.K.Mohanty, the then Chief Secretary, Srinibas Rath, the then Development Commissioner and Arun Kumar Panda, the then R.D.C.- all from Orissa and Gurbachan Singh, Member of U.P.S.C. assisted by Union Joint Secretary S.Jagadeesham comprised the Committee.
They were the senior most members of the bureaucracy. How could they prefer evidently deficient officers to the officers who had been graded �outstanding� for continuous five years in their transparently blemish less service careers? They cannot say that they had not violated administrative acuity in order to select the unsuitable persons they selected. Now they should be asked to say as to why did they do it.
Had they gone through the list of Officers under the Zone of Consideration, Mr. Aswini K. Das and Mr. Promod Chandra Patnaik, the two most suitable officers, I am sure, would never have been discarded. But they did not do it. The Orissa officers did not help the U.P.S.C. and the Union Government in evaluating the suitability of the Officers concerned.
After the CAT verdict the State Government had known that a wrong has been done. It was the duty of the State Government to take correctional steps. But it did not act in that respect. Mohanty, relinquishing the Chief Secretary post has been awarded with the more coveted post of Chairman of Orissa Public Service Commission.
But the two most brilliant and outstanding officers are languishing in the State service cadre whereas the State Exchequer is being exploited for paying them the salary packages applicable to a cadre to which their illegal entrance has been declared null and void.
The State is under Peoples� Representatives. Hence the authority above the Chief Secretary is the Chief Minister. If he has not compelled the Chief Secretary ( P.K.Mohanty as then he was) and his team in the Committee to supersede the most suitable officers by the tainted ones, in this case, he must take steps to punish this fellow for having corrupted administration as discussed above. Steps need be taken to determine the corrupt practices resorted to by each of the members in the concerned Committees in suppressing vital facts and in sloughing over the guiding laws.
The Constitution of India has created Public Service Commissions for only one purpose. That is elimination of favoritism in selection of Union or State Service Officers.
Any violation of this purpose is an offense against the Constitution.
Hence I expect the Chief Minister to understand that it is his duty to bring every offender in the instant case to books as an example of responsible parliamentary rule, and most importantly as a deterrent to any such manipulations in future.
Source Link http://orissamatters.com/2006/08/11/crowning-corruption/
Orissa suspends IAS officer on corruption charges
" 'Samantray, a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, has a house in Bhubaneswar worth over Rs.10 million,' Patnaik said."
Bhubaneswar, Aug 13 - The Orissa government has suspended an Indian Administrative Service - officer for allegedly having wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, official sources said Wednesday.
Vigilance department officials raided the residence and office premises of Himansu Sekhar Samantray, managing director of the state run Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation, July 27.
'During investigation we found he possessed cash and properties worth more than Rs.20 million - an amount he could not have earned from his job,' vigilance cell police superintendent Debadutta Patnaik said.
He has been placed under suspension after the vigilance department registered a case against him Tuesday after prima facie evidence showed his involvement in embezzlement of government money, an official of the state general administration department told IANS.
'Samantray, a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, has a house in Bhubaneswar worth over Rs.10 million,' Patnaik said.
'We also discovered that he has two other houses in his home district Mayurbhanj, each worth about RS.2.2 million. He also has other properties, cash and gold ornaments.' He added.
Source Link | http://www.nerve.in/news:253500156416
Bhubaneswar, Aug 13 - The Orissa government has suspended an Indian Administrative Service - officer for allegedly having wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, official sources said Wednesday.
Vigilance department officials raided the residence and office premises of Himansu Sekhar Samantray, managing director of the state run Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation, July 27.
'During investigation we found he possessed cash and properties worth more than Rs.20 million - an amount he could not have earned from his job,' vigilance cell police superintendent Debadutta Patnaik said.
He has been placed under suspension after the vigilance department registered a case against him Tuesday after prima facie evidence showed his involvement in embezzlement of government money, an official of the state general administration department told IANS.
'Samantray, a 1994 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, has a house in Bhubaneswar worth over Rs.10 million,' Patnaik said.
'We also discovered that he has two other houses in his home district Mayurbhanj, each worth about RS.2.2 million. He also has other properties, cash and gold ornaments.' He added.
Source Link | http://www.nerve.in/news:253500156416
IAS officer being probed for corruption in Himachal
Shimla, Aug 12 (IANS) IAS officer Subhash Ahluwalia, ex-aide to former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virabhadra Singh, has been asked to surrender his passport to the state vigilance bureau that is probing a disproportionate assets case against him, an official said here Tuesday. Ahluwalia was Monday summoned by the bureau to its office here and interrogated for over an hour about his assets and bank transactions. The bureaucrat failed to satisfy the bureau regarding his bank accounts worth Rs.13.40 million, a vigilance bureau official said.
“He will be summoned again in a few days,” the official said.
Ahluwalia was asked to surrender his passport to the bureau and agreed to do so by Thursday. The IAS officer’s wife Meera is also under the scanner of the vigilance team.
Meera was accused of going on foreign jaunts at the expense of a private company, which is setting up a cement plant in the hill state.
During the previous government, Ahluwalia was private secretary to the chief minister for over four years.
Source Link http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/ias-officer-being-probed-for-corruption-in-himachal_10082974.html
“He will be summoned again in a few days,” the official said.
Ahluwalia was asked to surrender his passport to the bureau and agreed to do so by Thursday. The IAS officer’s wife Meera is also under the scanner of the vigilance team.
Meera was accused of going on foreign jaunts at the expense of a private company, which is setting up a cement plant in the hill state.
During the previous government, Ahluwalia was private secretary to the chief minister for over four years.
Source Link http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/ias-officer-being-probed-for-corruption-in-himachal_10082974.html
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