By IANS
Lucknow : The officer selected to head the Uttar Pradesh Indian Administrative Service Association is one of the three officers voted as the “most corrupt” by this very organisation a decade ago.
Sanjay Bhoosreddy, secretary of the state IAS association, said: “The association Tuesday took a decision to nominate Brijendra as its officiating head until our next annual general meeting, which is likely to be held in December or January.”
Brijendra, a 1971 batch officer, is currently posted as chairman of the state vigilance commission — an institution, which has been almost inactive for the past several years.
Bhoosreddy justified Brijendra’s appointment on the plea that he is the senior most serving IAS officer in the state. Earlier, Neera Yadav, an IAS officer of the same seniority was pushing her own case to don the mantle of the association’s chief, but did not succeed in the face of stiff opposition by crusaders led by Vijai Shankar Pandey, a 1979 batch officer.
Pandey, who had earlier spearheaded the campaign for a secret ballot to elect the three “most corrupt officers” in 1997, told IANS: “It is a misfortune of this great service that today we have to choose only from among the corrupt.
“This really reflects the sorry state of affairs that we are in today. Our representative body is to be headed by those who have brought utter disrepute and disgrace to the country’s top civil service.”
The other two officers who were voted as among the “most corrupt” in the state served as chief secretaries till they were eventually removed following the intervention of the country’s Supreme Court.