The raging controversy between the Union Home Ministry and the Chief Minister refuses to defuse any time soon. A day after Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde confronted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by calling him yeda (Marathi word for mad), the Ministry dodged the CM’s preferred candidate as the chief of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The suggested official has now been transferred by the Home Ministry to Puducherry.
Sources with the Delhi Government said that Kejriwal had sought appointment of 1993 batch IPS officer, Praveer Ranjan, who is designated as joint commissioner of the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police as the chief of the bureau. An order in this regard, a copy of which The Pioneer has, had also been issued by lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung earlier this month. “The honorable lieutenant-Governor of Delhi has ordered the transfer/posting of Praveer Ranjan (IPS: 1993) from joint CP EOW to Joint CP Anti Corruption Branch, Department of Vigilance with immediate effect,” states the order. Terming the department as ‘inefficient’ and ‘inactive’ for several years, the Chief Minister had requested the l-G to replace the current ACB chief, GC Dwivedi. Kejriwal had said that the inefficiency of the department was brought to light after the launch of the anti-corruption hotline as the action on the sting operations conducted by the common public have been slow, even though the helpline received a lot of complaints. The CM had also accused the ACB officers as ‘compromised,’ during an interview to a news channel.