In a move considered fallout of the NH-74 land acquisition and compensation scam being probed by Special Investigation Team (SIT), the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Association has sought a meeting with the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. On Friday, a delegation of the association comprising 40 IAS officers met the additional chief secretaries-Om Prakash and Radha Raturi- and discussed the aftermath of the SIT interrogating two IAS officers for their alleged involvement in the scam involving Udham Singh Nagar district. In the meeting with Om Prakash, the IAS officers sought time for discussions with the CM.
The move by the mighty association of the IAS officers has been made at a time when the SIT is on the point of submitting its report to the State Government. Sources say that the IAS officers are perturbed over the State Government’s green signal to the SIT headed by an Indian Police Services (IPS) officer to question two IAS officers on their suspicious roles as arbitrators of the project.
The association is of the view that since the IAS officers discharge their duties as arbitrators in the cases of land acquisition and compensation disputes as part of judicial power bestowed on them by the Constitution their role cannot be called into question by police, sources said.
The multi-crore scam had occurred in the years from 2011 to 2016 when work on widening the Haridwar- Bareilly National Highway (NH –74) was in progress. The farmers whose lands had been acquired for the project had allegedly been paid far more compensation than they were entitled with the character of the land being unfairly changed from agricultural to non-agricultural in the Government documents. The SIT has so far sent two dozen officers and employees of the revenue department as well as the administration to jail in connection with the scam.
The IAS association is reportedly further disturbed over the decision to undertake a special audit of Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) of the past five years which is expected to put a former VC and an IAS officer in spot.
The palpable muscle flexing of the powerful association of the IASs might drive the State Government to decide as to whether it would stick to its guns in line with its professed zero-tolerance to corruption stance even at the risk of facing ire of the mighty lobby or it would beat a retreat under the pressure of the browbeating Babus, an observer says.