Whistle-blower UP PCS officer takes voluntary retirement

Senior PCS officer Hari Shankar Pandey, who had reportedly exposed the Rs 1,400 crore scam UP's Rural Engineering Department (Red), today opted for voluntary retirement in protest against government order of filing a charge sheet against him for "conducting inquiry in a wrong way".
Principal Secretary appointment Rajiv Kumar today ordered a probe against Pandey for "indiscipline and forgery in government documents as the then special secretary" in the Rural Engineering department.
Pandey, a 1978 batch officer, said that he was not even given a chance to explain himself before "casting aspersion and raising a question mark" on his integrity and working style while conducting a probe in the the alleged scam.

Sticking to his stand, Pandey said every point raised by him in the report was correct and he was not interested in continuing in the service "in a system where his honest efforts were being questioned".
Pandey said that he had highlighted instances of large-scale fund irregularities in the RED and demanded a complete audit of Red's works between 2007 and 2012.
Most of his allegations of financial mismanagement were upheld in an audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.