Taint at the Top
It took the cbi very long to raid Akhand Pratap Singh, the former UP chief secretary, who had survived several state inquiries. At least half a dozen inquiries — vigilance, departmental and cid — were on against him for the past 10 years. A cbi inquiry was ordered way back in 1998, but successive state governments denied the required sanction to the cbi. The agency raided him only after he had retired. When no sanction was required.
But Singh’s is not the lone case. Immunised against cbi and vigilance inquiries, bureaucrats continue to reign even as inquiries drag on for years, sometimes decades.
The UP ias Association through a secret ballot ranked its most corrupt colleagues in 1996-97. Neera Yadav, now agriculture production commissioner, and Brijendra Yadav, now member, revenue board, shared the podium along with numero uno Singh. Neera and Brijendra were voted second and third respectively. However, no fresh lists were released since then due to a split in the body.
In the wake of the cbi raids on Singh, the splinter group — UP ias Action Force — has begun work on a fresh list that would include the top 20 corrupt ias officers.
But before that happens Tehelka tracks the record of the top three contenders for the post of chief secretary which falls vacant next month when Chief Secretary VK Mittal retires. The cbi and vigilance inquiries found them guilty of serious charges of corruption and of favouring particular companies. But at least two of them have only gone up the bureaucratic ladder, simply because successive state governments withheld the sanction for prosecution. The three bureaucrats who are in the race are two 1971-batch ias officers, Neera Yadav and Brijendra Yadav. The third contender is Brijesh Kumar, a 1968-batch ias officer, who is secretary, department of information technology and department of telecommunications. Kumar was listed among the top 10 corrupt officers in the 1996-97 hot-list.
Neera Yadav, voted the second-most corrupt IAS officer by her fraternity, currently occupies the second most important post in UP — Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC). The post entrusts occupants with as many as seven important departments and has traditionally been the seat of the chief secretary-in-waiting.
Read full article: Tehelka
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