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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Whistleblower hounded for yrs by Haryana govt by Nitin Sethi

Whistleblower hounded for yrs by Haryana govt by Nitin Sethi

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published Published on Dec 30, 2010   modified Modified on Dec 30, 2010

Twelve transfers in five years, an illegal suspension order, a fabricated chargesheet, denial of promotion and a spoiled annual confidential report (ACR). That's what forest service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi was awarded by the Haryana government. His 'crime'? He unearthed a multi-crore scam involving senior officials, implemented the Supreme Court's orders preventing a wildlife sanctuary from being destroyed and stopped government money from being spent on private lands of politically influential people.

For three years, the Prime Minister's Office, state information commission, environment ministry, Central Administrative Tribunal and cabinet secretariat tried to stop the relentless harassment of the young officer, but Haryana chief minister B S Hooda's office paid no heed. Ministers, officials in the CM's 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 who was feted by others.

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 CM's office, and senior state government officials.

TOI first reported on his case three years ago when his victimization 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 Hooda's 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. He tried to report and check the large scale financial irregularities in the afforestation projects of the state government, funded by the Central government and international agencies, in CM Hooda's constituency.

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 Times of India, 30 December, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Whistleblower-hounded-for-yrs-by-Haryana-govt/articleshow/7187766.cms


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