Unmoved by CM's plea, DoPT slaps showcause notice on Shahid

In a new twist to the raging sting video liquor scam,    Department of Personal & Training (DoPT), which had terminated the deputation of former personal secretary to Chief Minister Harish Rawat, Mohammad Shahid on July 25, has issued a show-cause notice to Shahid, asking him to explain by August 11 why he has not joined his previous posting on August 10 as directed. Observers feel the notice would pile fresh pressure on Shahid as well as on the state government with the latter seemingly stonewalling his departure from the state despite the DoPT order.  

Notably, the sting video purportedly showed Md Shahid, a 1998 batch IAS officer of Gujarat cadre who has been on deputation since 2009 when Harish Rawat was the Union minister, seeking money in the name of CM to fix  liquor license to an anonymous liquor baron.With the CD, unveiled by the Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi on July 22, creating ruckus in Uttarakhand’s political scene, DoPT wrote a letter, ending Shahid’s period of deputation and ordering him to join his previous  posting  immediately. However, things did not  move this way, as the CM  wrote to DoPT, asking it to defer deportation in view of  the principal secretary conducting a probe into the sting CD episode. He sought time till the probe was over. However, DoPT, instead of writing back to CM, issued the show cause notice to Md Shahid.

Talking to The Pioneer, CM Rawat had expressed his apprehension a few days ago of Shahid being used as a ploy by DoPT to defame the  state  government on the issue at the behest of the NDA Government at the Centre. A political analyst said CM procrastinating on suspending the tainted IAS for a few days following the  sting- revelation has landed him in trouble.  DoPT has made it abundantly clear for the bureaucrats across the spectrum  that they are all under their  lens, said the  observer.