Kerala’s CPI(M)-led lDF Government on Monday appointed DGP Nirmal Chandra Asthana as the new Director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB). With the appointment of Asthana, State police chief loknath Behera has been removed from the charge of the bureau’s chief.
Sources said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had signed the order appointing Asthana as the agency’s head. The Government’s action came amidst a controversy over Behera holding the twin charges of police chief and VACB head for the past 11 months without the permission or knowledge of the Union Home Department which is a violation of rules.
Asthana, a 1986 batch Kerala cadre IPS official who has served as Inspector General, Vigilance and Additional DGP of CRPF earlier and is presently on Central deputation, told newsmen in New Delhi on Monday that he was yet to receive the official communication on his selection as Vigilance chief and that he had come to know of the matter through media reports.
A controversy had erupted in Kerala last week after a document procured through the RTI route revealed that Behera, the police chief looking after the State’s law and order system, was holding the additional charge of the Director of VACB for the past 11 months without the approval or knowledge of the Union Department of Home Affairs.
Since the positions of police chief and Vigilance Director have been approved by the Centre as cadre posts in Kerala, officials below the rank of DGP could not hold the post of VACB chief as per rules. Also it is against the all-India service rules for the same person to occupy the two important positions simultaneously.
As per rules, Central approval is necessary for appointing an official in a cadre post in a state for more than six months. It is said that all these rules have been violated in the case of Behera, whom the Opposition parties are accusing of being a loyalist of Chief Minister Pinarayi and the CPI(M), holding the charge of Vigilance Director.
Critics had pointed out that the violation of the all-India service rules was all the more blatant in Behera’s case as the twin positions he had been holding could lead to serious conflict of interest since Vigilance is the agency entrusted with the responsibility of taking corrupt officials to task. No official had held these two positions simultaneously in Kerala in the past.
Behera’s removal from the charge of Vigilance chief has come also at a time when the State Government is waiting for the Centre’s reply to its request for permission to lower the post of the Director of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) from the rank of Director General of Police to Additional DGP.
The lDF had vociferously opposed installation of an official of ADGP rank as Vigilance chief when it was in the Opposition. Opposition parties have described this plan as one intended at ensuring that the official installed at the helm of the watchdog agency is someone whom the Government can “keep on its leash”.