Amid the removal of two senior IAS officers from key posts and the recent Congress drubbing in the civic polls, the Uttarakhand chief minister is apparently trying to refurbish his image by declaring a war on corruption.
"The CM has instituted an inquiry to seek a report against all those officers involved in serious charges of corruption," said a top government official. Principal secretary to the CM, S S Sandhu will conduct the inquiry, the official added.
However, BJP is smelling a rat in the whole episode. "The way some honest officers were removed, it all showed that the government is trying to promote corruption in the state. The CM's move to fight corruption is just a farce," said BJP leader and former chief minister B C Khanduri.
The move came after the chief minister this week removed chief secretary Alok Kumar Jain and brought back his predecessor Subhash Kumar, under whose tenure a series of alleged scandals took place during the previous BJP regime. Kumar has also been indicted in the first report prepared by the K L Bhatti commission related to the alleged irregularities in the state-run Uttarakhand Seeds and Terai Corporation Ltd (USTCL).
In a related move, Bahuguna also removed principal secretary finance Radha Raturi, an IAS officer of high integrity, despite objections by a section of bureucrats. Raturi was replaced by industrial development secretary Rakesh Sharma, who is considered to be close to the Bahuguna camp. "On May 2 when the CM was effecting the bureaucratic reshuffle, Jain had strongly opposed the removal of Raturi from the finance department. Moreover, Jain had taken strong objection to alleged irregularities occurring in scores of projects in the state. The next day, Jain was removed," said an official source close to the development.
However, the charge of the Managing Director of the government-controlled State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd (Sidcul), the nodal agency for industrial development in the state, has been taken away from Rakesh Sharma. Now Shailesh Bagoli, additional secretary industrial development, will head SIDCUL but will work under Sharma who will continue to hold the charge of industrial development.
The latest reshuffle sent ripples in the entire bureaucracy since Jain was proving to be a hard nut to crack. The move also came close on the heels of the ruling Congress party's poor performance in the civic elections where it lost most of the mayor posts to the rival BJP.
Kumar was appointed chief secretary by then chief minister Ramesh Pokhiryal Nishank in 2009. A series of alleged scandals like misappropriation of Kumbh mela funds, Citurgia land scam and allotment of hydel projects to liquor companies had rocked Uttarakhand when Kumar was holding the post of chief secretary. After becoming chief minister last year, Bahuguna had removed Kumar immediately and appointed Jain in his place.
