Patna: The Bihar government has thrown a last-minute spanner into the cadre change of IAS officer Jitendra Gupta, who was implicated in a corruption case in 2016 for taking on the entry mafia in the state.
The 36-year-old officer won the case against him in Patna High Court and the Supreme Court, but is still battling on two fronts - to get a cadre transfer to Haryana and to save himself.
Gupta, who is originally from Uttar Pradesh, wanted a cadre change to Haryana, his wife's native state. While Haryana was willing to accept the officer, the Bihar government denied its consent leading to the request to be rejected.
"I fail to understand if the courts, the central and the Haryana governments are willing for cadre change, why can't Bihar be? I am not involved in any important project here," Gupta said. "I have no fight with the Bihar government. I just want to work and use my life for constructive purposes."
The continuous stress, Gupta said, has taken a toll on his health. He developed high blood pressure, resulting in irreversible damage to one of his kidneys, multiple hospitalisations and surgeries.
He has now approached the principal bench of CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) in New Delhi for redress of his grievances.
The tribunal took up the matter in January this year and sent a notice the state government, asking chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh to appear on February 1, failing which the matter will be disposed of ex parte (with respect to interests of one side only).
The chief secretary, however, did not appear before the tribunal and the counsel for the state government sought time. The tribunal has listed the matter for February 9.
Gupta of the 2013 batch, who has a postgraduate degree in orthopaedics, was arrested on July 13, 2016 on bribery charges while he was serving as Mohania sub-divisional officer in Kaimur district. The vigilance raid team had shown a recovery of Rs 80,000 cash from his driver.
He spent a month in jail but the high court later quashed the FIR against him. The apex court too upheld the high court's decision and gave directions to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) to consider Gupta's request for cadre change.
Asked why the state government had not given its consent to Gupta's request, Amir Subhani, principal secretary of the general administration department, told The Telegraph: "The cadre transfer has not been declined because of us. The DoPT has declined it after taking all circumstances into consideration. How can we dictate terms to the Government of India? It is another thing that we disagreed on the cadre transfer."
Change of IAS officers' cadre is governed by Rule 5(2) of the IAS (Cadre) Rules, 1954, which stipulates that "the central government may with the concurrence of the state government concerned, transfer a cadre officer from one cadre to another cadre".
The embattled IAS officer said he was just doing his job and had taken action against the "entry mafia", which ensures entry of overloaded trucks and goods carriers without proper permits and papers into Bihar, inflicting a huge loss of revenue to the state.
"People whose interests were hurt, got me implicated and arrested. I was jailed, my salary, service confirmation, promotion were withheld and departmental proceedings were started against me on the basis of the FIR that was already quashed by the high court. However, I got relief from the judiciary on all fronts," Gupta said.
