Letter to Chief Secretary dated 26 feb 07

VV/PER/05/2007 Bangalore

M.N.Vijayakumar 26, February 2007

Under orders of Transfer,

Ref 1. My Letters to the Chief Secretaries dated 26/10/06 (contains all my previous references), 6/11/06, 22/11/06, 24/11/06, 30 Nov 2006, 16 Jan 07 and 22 Jan 07)

2 DPAR letter No. DPAR 435 SAS 2006 dated 22/11/06

3. My letter to the Chief Secretary dated 27/1/07

4. My transfer order dated 13/9/06 posting me

as Secretary , Regional commissioner , Gulbarga

5. My transfer order dated 25/10/06 promoting and posting

for one day as Principal secretary, Minorities … and posting

me again as Regional Commissioner, Gulbarga

6. My transfer order dated 2/2/207 posting me as

Regional Commissioner, Bangalore

7. My transfer order dated 22/2/07 posting me as

Principal Secretary, department of Public Enterprises

8. Message received today at 4:30 pm informing me that I

am posted as Managing director, Mysore lamps Ltd

9. My letter to the Chief Secretary dated 24/2/07

Dear

Immediately after being informed about the modification of the transfer order to enable Sri Devendran to continue in the DPE (against whom many corruption charges are there), I sent a letter to you both by fax and by email day before yesterday.

As can be seen between September 2006 and February 2007, I have been transferred 6 times in a period of six months. The only ground of my frequent transfers is my fight against corrupt practices by senior officers. I had written in my letter to the Chief Secretary on 27/1/07 that I would unearth at least 10 major cases in which corrupt officers are being shielded by the DPAR, if I am posted for a week in DPAR. After having worked as Regional Commissioner, Bangalore for 20 days, I am now confident of unearthing 20 such cases if I am allowed to function for one week in DPAR, each case involving amassing of wealth of more than Rs. 20 crores. In the 20 days period I worked, I have raised the issue of lack of transparency in allotment of land by the BMRDA. I have reported about action to be initiated against three Deputy Commissioners for their corrupt practices. I have also reported to the Government to initiate action against one Special Deputy Commissioner, two Assistant Commissioners for allowing Government files to be kept with a private person and I had suggested to the Government to entrust the enquiry to the Lokayukta. The amount of ill-gotten money by these officers runs into crores of rupees.

I had acted as per the observation made by His Excellency, The Governor of Karnataka in his Republic Day speech to fight corruption and protect honest officers. I arranged series of programs and issued detailed circulars keeping the spirit of the Right to information Act in mind and totally as per the provisions of the RTI Act and Rules. I have designed various cost effective methods of giving information to the Public to enable them to report corrupt practices so that action can be taken against the corrupt. All these were done in a matter of 20 days period during which I was allowed to function as Regional Commissioner, Bangalore.

I did not have to wait too long for the repercussions. On 23/2/07 I read in the News paper that I have been posted as Principal Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises. It is to be noted that I had reported serious cases of corrupt practices by Sri I. Devindran (against whom there are many other serious corruption charges and in one case enquiry is still going on) and repeatedly asked the Chief Secretary, as to how a person against whom serious corrupt practices were leveled was allowed to continue (to help him tamper the records!). I was under the impression that finally DPAR had realized its mistake in continuing Sri.I.Devindran against whom serious corruption charges were alleged and justice had been done. But this justice did not even last for 24 hours!

The events that followed were very unfortunate as I was neither allowed to function as Regional Commissioner, Bangalore, nor was I allowed to take charge as Principal Secretary, DPE. The drama that took place is given below:

I had informed Sri D.N. Nayak that I would be handing over charge on 26/2/07 as I had arranged training programs for many officers at all the district head quarters on 24/2/07. However, I was informed over phone at 12: 30 pm on 24/2/07(while I was busy in making further preparations for the launch of the system created by me under the RTI Act ) that Sri D.N. Nayak had assumed charge in my absence as per the oral instructions of Secretary, DPAR. Immediately I informed the office of the Department of Public Enterprises, that I would be taking charge at 5 pm on the same day. Less than 24 hours after the first transfer order was received by me, I learnt at 4.30 pm that I have been posted as Managing Director of a closed company. In fact I learnt about the modification of my transfer order when I was about to enter the office of DPE to take charge. I immediately returned home and started writing a letter to you, which I sent on the same day by fax and email.

It is to be noted that an officer who is three grades junior to me was holding this post as additional charge. Now for my actions against corrupt practices, I have been asked to take charge from him and that too as a whole time Managing Director! It is to be stressed that Sri I.Devindran has been again retained in the same post canceling his transfer order. If this was to be done, I fail to understand why the transfer order posting me as Principal Secretary was issued at all. I do not have to repeatedly inform you that all these have been done to harass me and prevent me from fighting corrupt practices. Is is highly unfortunate that DPAR is doing everything to protect the corrupt.

I want to emphasize the point that whatever action I took to create a transparent system was informed to you well in advance in my letter sent to you on 27/1/07. I have acted to expose corrupt practices and I have created a system to make it easy for citizens to detect and report corrupt practices. These actions resulted in my transfer to prevent me from working in public interest and the details of the system created by me can be found at http://bngregcommr.freespaces.com

In view of the above, I am not making any request to you, but I am writing this letter to document the harassment meted out to me for acting as per the calls given by His Excellency, the Governor of Karnataka and exposing corrupt practices and for enabling citizens and honest officials to fight corruption. As I was writing this letter yesterday, a news item appeared on the various TV channels, as per which, H.E. the President of India in his address at Belgaum, has asked the youth to fight corruption and has said that corruption is the biggest social evil and has called for mass movement against it. It is unfortunate that, I never got any support from you, but only continue to be harassed. But I want to make it clear that I will continue to fight corrupt practices in spite of many hurdles I may have to face (including frequent transfers!).

I also learnt that I would not be getting salary in the given posting. Further that there are only two supporting staff and no vehicle. You have severely punished me for my honesty without conducting enquiry for no fault of mine. The person who is presently holding additional charge is surprised that such a senior officer has been posted as a full time Managing Director. H.E. the Governor of Karnataka had called for a zero tolerance policy towards corruption. But the above events indicate a zero tolerance policy towards honesty. These things make it clear that DPAR wants to push me to the edge of resigning from service to protect the corrupt, which I will never do. I will be taking up these issues and I will fight till I get justice in an appropriate forum.

Thanking You,

Yours Sincerely

(M.N.Vijayakumar)

Sri P.B.Mahishi, IAS

Chief Secretary to Government,

Government of Karnataka

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