U’khand govt reverses order on Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s posting to Delhi

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand government on Saturday reversed its decision taken a day earlier to depute whistle-blower IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi as an officer on special duty (OSD) in Delhi. At a press conference in the evening, CM Harish Rawat announced that Chaturvedi would be given a fresh assignment in a few days “as per his choice.” It was being alleged that Chaturvedi was not too keen with the posting in which he had to represent the state in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) -- where the Uttarakhand government was facing the heat in over 180 cases pertaining to flouting of environmental norms -- and that he instead wanted a posting in the state vigilance department.
The 2002-batch officer, a Magsaysay award winner, had been without a posting since August when he shifted to the Uttarakhand cadre. Almost a fortnight ago, he had written to former chief secretary Shatrughan Singh requesting that he be posted in the vigilance department since he had handled a similar responsibility in his last posting as chief vigilance officer at AIIMS, New Delhi. However, after the state government issued an order on Friday posting him as an OSD for NGT cases at the Uttarakhand Resident Commissioner's office in Delhi, Chaturvedi was believed to be “unhappy with the transfer.”
On Saturday, CM Rawat told mediapersons that Chaturvedi’s request would be taken into consideration and that he had asked officials to ensure that a fresh order on his posting is issued “in accordance with his choice.” “If an honest and upright officer like Sanjiv Chaturvedi wants to work with us in Uttarakhand, we will not discourage him,” Rawat said.
For over a year, the Uttarakhand government had been doing a series of flip-flops regarding Chaturvedi leading many to assume that it was unsure how to handle the high-profile officer. After Chaturvedi had requested for a transfer in cadre from Haryana to Uttarakhand, the Uttarakhand government in November last year issued him a no-objection certificate (NOC) to pave the way for his joining the Delhi government where CM Arvind Kejriwal had been trying to get him posted as his OSD. However, in January this year, the NOC was cancelled by the Harish Rawat government which some alleged was done at the behest of the Centre with whom Chaturvedi was at loggerheads for having denied him his service-related benefits. Ever since the officer had joined the Uttarakhand cadre over three months back, he had been without work although he was recently promoted as Conservator of Forests..
The 42-year-old officer had exposed a series of forest-related scams in his home cadre Haryana, from where he sought a central deputation after complaining of harassment at being transferred 12 times in a period of five years. In his last posting as the chief vigilance officer (CVO) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, Chaturvedi had completed investigations and took action in 165 cases of corruption in the medical institute over a period of two and a half years.