Honest IAS Ashok Khemka transferred - 46th time

The Whistle-blower IAS officer Ashok Khemka in Haryana is on the move again On his 46th transfer in 22 years. He has been moved from Transport to State Archeology which is normal post for official who opposes those in power, say IAS lobby.

The BJP government in Haryana transferred within 128 days of his posting as transport commissioner in the state to the state Archaeology department. The rules say that the officer should be posted on fixed tenure of minimum two years.

Khemka on the other hand, continues to live with the blots Congress government put on his career records. He also said, “Bureaucratic inertia is regressive, goads a new but unsure political executive to repeat mistakes of the past using the alibi of governance. On the day of his transfer, late at night Khemka said, “Tried hard to address corruption and bring reforms in Transport despite severe limitations and entrenched interests. Moment is truly painful.”Perhaps that was the cause of his 46th transfer.

Despite the change of Union and state governments, the charge-sheet and other career-threatening actions of the previous Congress government in Haryana against the officer too remain alive and have not been resolved either by the central or the state government – either could have done so under the rules that govern All India Service officers like Khemka.

Khemka had suffered a similar fate under the previous Congress government in the state when BS Hooda was the Chief Minister. After Khemka dug out details of the dubious land deals of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, a charge-sheet for major penalties lead to dismissal of the officer from the service. He was accused of wrongly cancelling the Robert Vadra land and speaking to the media against the government.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi expectations gaining ground that the NDA government would take a re-look at all the charges and adverse actions against Khemka. But it did not act to re-look at any of the standing charges against the whistle-blower even though the CAG presented a report validating Khemka’s findings in the Vadra deals. The Centre holds absolute powers to quash any actions of a state government against an IAS officer of its own accord but the NDA government at Centre has not done so far in the Khemka case. But it had done so in case of another whistle-blower from Haryana cadre, Sanjiv Chaturvedi.