Retired bureaucrats, judges back whistleblower Nagabhushan

BENGALURU: Senior IAS officer Dr Ajay Nagabushan, who raised his voice against the irregularities at the State Department of Collegiate Education by submitting a report to the Chief Secretary (CS), has received support from many, including retired IAS officers, retired judges and even from elected representatives.

Ajay Nagabushan who was working as commissioner for Department of Collegiate Education, was transferred as Commissioner of Cane Development and Director of Sugar on October 17. A week after the transfer, on Tuesday the officer submitted a detailed report to the CS detailing the irregularities taking place at the department. Express had published a report ‘Shunted out for highlighting wrongs, IAS officer writes to Chief Secretary’ about Nagabushan’s letter on Thursday. Following the report, several people came out in support of Nagabushan and demanded the Chief Secretary and the CM to take up the issue and order a probe into all the issues raised by the officer.

Speaking to Express, Justice N Santosh Hegde said, “Transferring such an eminent officer is nothing but a conspiracy. The officer was  handling important files and had also ordered inquiry into some of the scams. Meanwhile, there were hands which tried to put pressure on him to stop the probe, and when he refused to yield to their pressure, he was shunted out.” Hegde added that the CS should give reasons for any officer’s premature transfer.

“It is the responsibility of the CS to give reasons for the transfer of an officer when it is premature. Being a public official, I can say that transfer of officers is being misused in the state. The CS has all the right to oppose such transfer recommendations, provided there are valid reasons,” he said. M Madan Gopal, retired IAS officer, demanded the Chief Minister to take a call. “Such incidents in the state will demoralise officers. Ajay Nagabushan is one of the finest officers we have in the state and the CM should order an inquiry into the allegations raised by him. When there is no immunity for a government officer, who will provide good governance? It has become a trend in the state to transfer honest officers. Honest officers should be protected.”

BJP MLC Arun Shapur said they will raise this issue in the next Assembly session. “The government has rights to transfer him. But our concern is over the issues raised by that particular officer. The CM must take note of it and order a judicial probe into this,” Shapur said.

Need for constitution of Civil Services Board  

The state government has put on hold an executive order by the Supreme Court on constituting the Civil Services Board (CSB). The apex court while hearing a PIL against political interference in functioning of the bureaucracy had issued orders to the Centre and state governments to constitute CSB to oversee the issues related to transfer of IAS, IPS and IFS officers. The order had also advocated the need for fixing a minimum tenure for officers in any post and that no officer shall act on oral directions. The Chief Secretary is to be the head of the CSB with senior IAS officers as members.

FALL FROM GRACE
Senior IAS officer Ajay Nagabushan transferred on October 17
Few weeks before the transfer, higher education minister had warned the  officer during a press conference, asking him not to get involved in some matters
Recently, some MLCs too held a press conference where they verbally abused the officer and called him ‘mad’ and ‘sadist’
After taking charge as the commissioner of Collegiate Education, Nagabushan decided to probe the fake
M. Phil certificate scam under which many lecturers were going to be exposed for submitting fake certificates
Raised objection over giving piecemeal tenders for purchase of laptops under the free
laptop scheme
Objected to release of funds for construction of Ambedkar School of Economics, said it was illegal to release funds before getting
administrative approval