Ex-CVO opposes govt stand on extension of AIIMS engineer in HC

Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who claims to have exposed multi-crore rupee scams at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences during his stint as its Chief Vigilance Officer, has alleged in the Delhi High Court that the services of a Superintending Engineer were extended "illegally".

The Indian Forest Service officer, presently serving as Conservator of Forest (Research) at Haldwani in Uttarakhand, has filed an affidavit opposing the stand of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that there was no illegality in extending the services of then Superintending Engineer B S Anand by Vineet Chaudhary, the then Deputy Director (Administration) at the AIIMS. He has alleged in his affidavit that Chaudhary, a 1982-batch IAS officer from the Himachal Pradesh cadre, had extended the services of the Superintending Engineer to ensure that he supervises a project to help others to allegedly commit financial irregularities in the engineering works at the institute during 2012-14.

Chaturvedi, who was on deputation in AIIMS, said that a case was registered by the CBI in September 2014 against then Deputy Director (Administration).

"Superintending Engineer, whose basic qualification was ITI in air conditioning and refrigeration, did not fall in the category of exceptionally talented medical and scientific specialists.

"In view of the AIIMS regulation, the extension was inherently and patently illegal," Chaturvedi said, while also alleging that the CBI investigation in the case, which was earlier being probed by him as CVO of the AIIMS, was being influenced.