A day after his Ministry removed AIIMS’ Chief Vigilance Officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday defended the decision saying the official was not ‘eligible’ for the post. The officer termed it a violation of PMO’s orders and the Ministry’s commitment to a Parliamentary standing committee.
“He (Sanjiv Chaturvedi) was not at all eligible for the post that he was holding at AIIMS. We were informed that without the approval of the Central Vigilance Commission, nobody can be assigned the post of CVO anywhere. This was brought to our notice, we took cognizance of the same and removed him from the post,” Vardhan told reporters, when asked about the sudden removal of Chaturvedi, who has the reputation of being a whistleblower.
Chaturvedi questioned the move saying that the Health Minister has ignored standing orders from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) — passed by the UPA Government — the Central Services Board and commitments made by his Ministry to the Parliament.
Demanding revoking of the order, Chaturvedi wrote to Health Secretary lov Verma saying, “On one hand, the Prime Minister publicly declares “na khaunga, na khane dunga" (will not indulge in corruption nor allow others) and speaks of a new work culture based on honesty and efficiency and on the other hand right under his nose in the most prestigious medical institute of the country, certain corrupt elements succeed in achieving what they could not in the past two years”.
The charge of his office has since been assigned to Joint Secretary and CVO of Union Health Ministry, Vishwas Mehta.
According to sources, Chaturvedi was brought on deputation to AIIMS after a rare instance of multiple orders by the President of India to rescue him from persecution by the Bhupinder Hooda Government in Haryana for blowing the lid off several multi-crore scams in the forestry sector. The Parliament’s standing committee had taken a commitment from the Health Ministry that the officer would not be removed from the post before the fixed stipulated tenure of four years.
The tenure of Chaturvedi, a Haryana cadre forest service officer of 2002 batch, was fixed for four years and was to have lasted till June 2016.