Cuttack, Aug. 25: The curious case of senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Kumar Raghavendra Singh, who availed special allowance for working in Naxal-affected area while being posted in Cuttack, reached Orissa High Court today with filing of a PIL in regard to it.
The PIL sought quashing of his promotion and appointment as chief conservator of forests (CCF) and expediting his trial in the vigilance case registered against him some 16 years ago.
Bhadrak-based social activist Bipin Bihari Mallik, 50, filed the petition.
“K.R. Singh is disqualified to hold the post of chief conservator of forests (training and development), Cuttack, as serious charges of corruption and appropriating of large amount of money and illegally availing anti-Naxal perks involves moral turpitude,” the PIL contended.
“While corruption has become a menace to the society, the instance of K.R. Singh is giving credence to the general belief that a corrupt officer can easily circumvent the system and go about with his corrupt way merrily,” the petition alleged.
According to the petition, when the 1982 batch IFS officer was serving as planning officer in principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF)’s office in 1995, Orissa’s vigilance department had conducted raids on his residential and official premises and “found disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 14.38 lakh which was 182 per cent of his total income during the check period”.
Though an FIR was registered in January 1996 in relation to the incident, chargesheet could be filed only on December 31, 2010, as the central government took 15 years to accord permission to the state vigilance to go ahead with prosecution. But the trial is yet to start.
In another development, Orissa government “with oblique motive rewarded him with two promotions from divisional forest officer to conservator of forests and then to chief conservator of forests”.
“It has now come to light that K.R. Singh has availed special allowances meant for officials working in Naxal-affected areas though his headquarters were in Cuttack. As per the accountant general’s audit report, K.R. Singh had fraudulently taken Rs 2.44 lakh as anti-Naxal perk, though the special allowance is meant for officers working in Naxal-affected areas as their headquarters,” the petition alleged.
The PIL has sought direction for recovery of the amount availed by the senior IFS officer as special allowance for working in Naxa-affected area.