In a direct snub to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh Government on Sunday night served a showcause notice on suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal.
The development came a day after Sonia wrote to the Prime Minister Manmoahn Singh to ensure justice to Nagpal and hours within the Centre shot a letter to the UP Government seeking a report on the Nagpal issue.
Sources said that in the chargesheet the suspended IAS officer has been asked to explain reason for demolishing the wall of a religious structure at Noida. The chargesheet clearly says that the suspended IAS officer was prima facie guilty for demolishing a boundary wall of a mosque at Kadalpur village in Gautam Buddha Nagar district on July 27. It says the officer exceeded her limits and acted without the consent of her seniors.
The act of the officer could have triggered communal violence in the State, the chargesheet added.
Earlier, the Centre had sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh Government on Nagpal in the midst of raging war of words between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party on victimising honest bureaucrats. There were indications that Durga’s wait for justice could grow longer as SP leadership was in no mood to relent and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was understood to be unhappy over Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention in the matter.
What started as an isolated case of hounding of a young civil servant has now developed into a full-blown controversy with scrutiny shifting to similar cases under Congress regime too. While Haryana’s IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s plight for taking on Robert Vadra is well documented, the latest one to hit the headline is abrupt transfer of Jaisalmer Superintendent of Police Pankaj Choudhary for reopening a case against the father of a Congress MlA.
Stung by Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking justice for Nagpal, the SP has raised the issue of victimisation of bureaucrats under Congress-ruled States to show mirror to Sonia.
“Congress chief Sonia Gandhi should write two more letters. One for Ashok Khemka, who was suspended by the Haryana CM. Another for Rajasthan, where two IAS officers were suspended. In both cases, there were allegations against her son-in-law Robert Vadra,” SP leader Naresh Agarwal said.
The Congress was quick to attack the Samajwadi Party for hurling barb at Sonia Gandhi and said the ruling party in UP was trying to hide what was essentially a case of corruption and illegal mining.
Party spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit also dismissed SP’s comments that the Congress president should also write a letter in support of Ashok Khemka, the Haryana IAS officer who had scrapped her son-in-law Robert Vadra’s land deals and was transferred.
“Both issues are totally different. That (Vadra’s) was a civil matter. Khemka was transferred along with other officers and not suspended. Anybody could go to courts against it,” he said.
Being a Member of Parliament from UP and the president of the country’s largest political party, Gandhi is well within her rights to express something on a question of administrative principle and ethics, Dikshit said, adding the issue of Nagpal’s suspension has gone beyond UP’s boundaries.
Sources said that Mulayam Singh Yadav was not ready to succumb to pressure mounted by his political opponents and the Congress to revoke the suspension of Durga Shakti. The utterances of leaders like Azam Khan and Naresh Agarwal showed that they wanted to highlight Durga Shakti’s case to send a clear message to bureaucrats not to take on the political leadership of the State.
While Durga Shakti has not spoken to media after her suspension, Jaisalmer SP Pankaj Choudhary told the media that he had reopened history-sheets against several persons, including the one against Gazi Fakir, father of Pokhran Congress MlA Saleh Mohammed, on July 31 after a spurt in crime in the golden fort city. He was transferred on August 2.
However, aware of the service rules that bar him from commenting on the administrative decision of the State Government, Pankaj described his transfer as “ routine.”
Just like in the case of Durga Shakti, support poured in for Pankaj too. A total bandh was observed in Jaisalmer by political parties and civil society groups on Sunday. Businessmen, hoteliers, and tour operators led the shutdown and held a rally demanding revocation of the transfer order. The protesters alleged that the “honest and dedicated” officer, who had cracked down on crime, had been deliberately transferred under political pressure to Kishangarh in Ajmer as Police Training Services Commandant.
While Pankaj was transferred along with 50 odd officers who had served three-year at one place, what raises eyebrows is the fact that he had been in Jaisalmer for just four months.
Meanwhile, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has Witten to the UP government seeking a report on 28-year-old Nagpal’s suspension. “A letter has been sent today to the UP government to send its response immediately,” Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy.
Narayanasamy said, “After seeing reports in the media, the first letter was sent on July 30 seeking a report from the state government. The second letter was sent on August 2 and the third letter has been sent today asking them to give response immediately.”
“If she feels she has been suspended on the wrong reason, she can write an appeal to us,” he said, adding that the woman officer has not yet written to the Centre on the issue.