In a letter to the Principal Auditor General of Haryana, Dr Ashok Khemka, under attack for his pathbreaking effort to introduce better quality of roofing in food storage godowns, has openly identified two tainted senior officers as gunning for him because of personal reasons
In response to Haryana government’s move to charge Dr Ashok Khemka with various irregularities in connection with his path breaking decision to introduce better quality roofing for warehouses, Dr Khemka has sent a strongly worded point-by-point rebuttal to Principal Accountant General (Audit) of Haryana, while alleging bias on the part of two tainted state government functionaries for cancelling a dubious land deal of Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, in October 2012.
The letter, written in the third week of January alleges that “the motive of the ruling political executive is to malign my reputation in the public eye for daring to annul the mutation of a land deal of Skylight Hospitality, a company of Mr Robert Vadra, on 15 October 2012.”
Dr Khemka alleges that “Mr SS Dhillon and Mr Roshan Lal are acting in a criminal and vindictive manner in collusion with the ruling political executive to frame me.”
SS Dhillon is Principal Secretary to Chief Minister while Roshan Lal is the Principal Secretary Agriculture. Both of them have a checkered record, compared to Dr Khemka’s unblemished record to exemplary public service.
Dr Khemka is an engineering graduate from IIT Delhi and PhD in Computer Science from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who chose to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1991 to serve the country.
He has had repeated run-ins with the four chief ministers of the Haryana government ever since he joined the IAS, for which has been transferred 44 times. But it is his cancellation of the Vadra land deal that has got the political establishment to hit at him beyond just transfers. He is now sought to be framed to change the roofing in food storage godowns from harmful asbestos sheets to better quality roofing sheets called galvalume, in the interests of the workers, when he was the managing director of Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) in 2009. This was a pathbreaking decision because the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has subsequently made galvalume sheets mandatory.
In his letter to the AG (Haryana), Dr Khemka alleges that Roshan Lal is trying to retaliate against him because he had filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 4 March, 2013 on discovery of a scam involving purchase of 99,996 quintals of wheat seeds at high rates without open and competitive tenders from a private middleman in November 2010. On 3 December 2013 Dr Khemka made a detailed representation to the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, reporting the modus operandi adopted in Haryana to misappropriate central subsidies of the Agriculture Ministry. An enquiry by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture is reportedly underway.
Dr Khemka has also identified the current Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, as participating in the witch-hunt against him because he had exposed Dhillon’s role in “several land-licensing and land-release scams while he (Dhillon) was posted as Director General of Town & Country Planning and Urban Estates Departments.” Dhillon’s role in licensing and release of state land in favour of a private builder was severely indicted in a judgment of 20 December 2013 of the Punjab & Haryana High Court.
Our emails sent to SS Dhillon and Roshan Lal remained unanswered till writing this report.
While the AG, supposedly an independent and constitutional authority, has been drafted in to probe Dr Khemka’s decisions, no records are being made available him for inspection despite written requests. The state government is apparently asking for a parallel enquiry by the CBI based on the same set of allegations without waiting for the final audit report of AG.
According to Dr Khemka’s letter to AG, “this shows utter lack of faith on the part of functionaries in the State Government in the special audit being conducted by a Constitutional authority.”
In a report, the Hindustan Times has said that the Haryana government has decided to defer the reference for a CBI probe into the allotment of Rs18.04 crore work orders for installing galvalume roofing sheets on warehouses by Dr Khemka.
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Pls clarify i will withdraw my support from AAP immediately .I support khemka and those associated with him in right context.
"Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies;
bureaucracy was definitely organised, however, under a constitutional government, with a natural kindness for mediocrity, a predilection for categorical statements and reports, a government as fussy and meddlesome as a small shopkeeper's wife!"
The aam janaata had high expectations from AK and his AAP that have been belied and betrayed. In their quest to 'do something big' for their parliamentary 'conquest' they threw unto the winds their avowed fight for corruption by resorting to cheap populist antics like lalbatti gaddis, waiver and concessions in power charges and free water. The Rail Bhavan Dharna and getting to RIL did them in.
In the short time where will they get 'good incorruptible' candidates pan-India? Not the 'kalipeeli wala' so-called Kumar Viswas on the judicial strictured Law Minister Somnath Bharati!
The fartherest Dr. Khemka keeps away from AAP. Capt. Gopinath and Mallika Sarabhai must be rueing joining hands with it.
Suggest everbody's reads "All the Janata Men" (1978 Vikas) written by veteran Janardan Thakur that goes back even before VP Singh. The author in his first coalition era saga has written a chapter each on the opportunists ranging from Jagjivan, Morarji, Atal Bihari, Advani et all. None of them were Kathak dancers but hard core netagan!
Maybe you are actually older than me because I know v. little of Jagjivan Ram/Morarji. But Vajpayee and Advani are NOT opportunists. In 1977, JP advised all the opposition to unite --- not for any opportunistic goals, but to save democracy!
Mr. Khemka, I've no doubt, has seen through AAP's opportunism, and has moreover made it clear he's not joining politics now.
I was in the 9th grade, and happened to be there by chance (the park is a few feet from the house I grew up in)! I was amazed to see it was Mr. Vajpayee himself and stood there for a few minutes time listening to him (My mom had sent me on an errand, and didn't have much time :))!
His speech was full of jokes, as usual, and he knew he was going to lose that election, but he toiled hard! That is not a sign of an opportunist. Anything but ...
Once you read "All the Janata Men" you'll come to accept that all our netagan have feet of clay.Even I've heard Atalji at the height of his glory here in Mumbai. After all human tendencies are here to stay, they don't change.
The video is out there on the internet for everyone to see. But you won't hear any calls on twitter from these so-called "leftists"; no changed DPs nor any profile images --- unlike those for the caravan magazine.
But if I whine about how I may lose my fat pay check, I can depend on dear wolf-boy to support me on papyrus :)