Whistleblower won't get Central deputation

The Haryana government has defied the Central government in an unusual way. The Centre asked the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government for an Indian Forest Service officer for deputation at the Centre, but the Haryana government has not been able to act on it. The officer in question is Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who is known for his whistle-blowing acts.

The Centre sent its latest reminder to the Haryana government on 21 May. The Centre had first asked the state government on 7 May to make Chaturvedi available with immediate effect.  

Chaturvedi blew the lid off several environment- and forest-related scams in the last five years and was harassed by the state government for exposing various irregularities. He was suspended by the order of the chief minister in January 2008. Chaturvedi was hounded, dragged in court, suspended and chargesheeted by the government of Haryana. Not getting justice in the state, he approached President Pratibha Patil, seeking justice.

An enquiry committee found officers in the chief Minister's office and the Haryana and Delhi politician Kiran Chaudhary and other politicians guilty for victimising him. On the basis of the report of this enquiry committee, the president quashed the departmental chargesheet against him in January 2011, noting that the officer was chargesheeted for implementing the orders of the Supreme Court and upholding the law.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest, in its latest reminder on 21 May 2012, told the Haryana Government, 'In continuation of this ministry telegram of even no dated 7th May, 2012 on the subject cited above and to request you to relieve Sh Sanjiv Chaturvedi, IFS (HY:2002), selected to the post of Deputy Secretary in AIIMS, Delhi under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on deputation basis, from his current charge to enable him to join his new assignment in AIIMS, Delhi.'

Sources say that the reluctance of the Haryana government to relieve Chaturvedi may lie in the series of scams he has exposed. He stopping illegal digging of a canal inside the Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary in Kurukshetra and flagged off illegal use of public funds on a herbal park developed on private land in a Fatehabad village.

The MoEF sought the opinion of the Chief Vigilance Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigation on the eqnuiry committee set up by the president. In November 2011, the CBI termed it a fit case for CBI investigation and the MoEF asked for registration of an FIR and transfer of case to the CBI. The CVC also approved this and on 1 March 2012, based on these opinion, the MoEF asked the Haryana government for the registration of FIR and transfer of the case to the CBI.