By Sharat Pradhan, IANS
Lucknow : The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Association of Uttar Pradesh is caught in a dilemma over nomination of a new president as the two prospective nominees were once voted as among the “three most corrupt” bureaucrats by the association members.
The issue has even caused a divide in the association, whose office bearers have no qualms about allowing either of the “most corrupt” to head the body. But a section of senior and young bureaucrats are opposed to the idea of allowing a tainted colleague to head the representative body of the elite service.
Both officers in question, Brijendra Yadav and Neera Yadav, belong to the 1971 batch of the IAS. However, Brijendra happens to be senior to Neera within the batch and has staked claim to the top position.
Association secretary Sanjay Bhoosreddy is opposing Brijendra’s case, saying the latter had resigned from the association almost two decades ago, though he has no written evidence to that effect.
“They want to ease me out to pave way for Neera Yadav,” Brijendra Yadav told IANS here Sunday.
Significantly, 10 years ago when the association undertook a unique exercise of identifying the “three most corrupt” amongst them through a secret ballot, both Brijendra and Neera had figured in the list.
While Brijendra got sidelined due to poor health, Neera went on to hold the top bureaucratic position of the state’s chief secretary during the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime. She was, however, ousted by an order of the Supreme Court following a public interest litigation (PIL) focusing on her tainted image.
Initially she was shifted to an almost equally key position of chairperson of the State Board of Revenue, only to be later moved by the Mayawati government to a far less important position of chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC).
Since then, she has been desperate to acquire some position of prominence. As association secretary Bhoosreddy is UPSRTC managing director, it apparently became simpler for Neera to push her own case to head the IAS body.
“As per the precedent of having the senior most IAS officer to head the state IAS association, Neera Yadav should have automatically become president immediately after the retirement of last incumbent Shambhu Nath on March 31. After all, she was the senior most member of the association, since Brijendra Yadav had snapped all ties with the association 20 years ago,” Bhoosreddy pointed out.
“We have decided to hold an emergency general meeting of the association on Sep 21 so that we can complete the procedure of nominating our new president.”
He lamented that, “this was the first time in the history of the association that it has remained headless for five months.”
Asked if serious corruption charges against Neera Yadav, still under investigation by the central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or indictment by the apex court would not reflect poorly on the association’s image if she were to head the body, Bhoosreddy remarked: “Immorality or corruption are non-issues, unless someone is actually convicted by a court.
“As far as the association is concerned, we go by our constitution which prescribes seniority as the sole criterion for heading the body,” he maintained.
Flaying Bhoosreddy for his stand, a number of IAS officers are determined to oppose the move.
“How can we allow this august body to be headed by someone who has brought disrepute and disgrace to the country’s top service?” asked Vijay Shankar Pandey, an IAS officer of the 1979 batch.
Having earlier led the in-house crusade to identify the “three most corrupt IAS officers”, Pandey was firmly of the view that “it would be most unfortunate if such tainted persons are allowed to be made president of our prestigious body.”
Suggesting a simple solution to the crisis, he said: “We could surely pick up the third senior most IAS officer as next president since the reputation of the two in question was highly tainted.”
The third most senior officer, V.K. Malhotra, is rated as “above board.”