Transferred for being a whistle-blower: Har IAS officer

A senior Haryana IAS officer has charged that the state government has "abruptly" transferred him, the 43rd in his career, as a "punishment" for acting as a whistle-blower in several dubious land transactions, a claim denied by authorities.

Ashok Khemka, the 1991-batch officer, has also pleaded for security as he feels "threat" from "vested elements" whom he has been exposing from time to time.

In his letter written on Friday to Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery, Khemka pointed out that there should be a minimum tenure of two years as per the statutory IAS (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations 2010, "but the state government has violated statutory regulations".

Haryana Chief Secretary Chaudery told reporters that the IAS officer's contention that his transfer was a punishment was not correct.

"It (transfer) is the prerogative of the government. The officer was transferred for administrative reasons," the chief secretary said.

In his letter, Khemka said acting as a whistle-blower on "several dubious" land transactions has come as a "punishment" for him.

"It is shocking to learn about my abrupt transfer...this is deliberate and malafide to punish me due to some vested elements in the political-bureaucratic hierarchy affected by the expose of the scams in consolidation of land holdings under the exercise of powers," he wrote in his letter.

During his 50-day stint in the department, Khemka had detected serious irregularities in land transactions involving transfer of panchayat land worth several hundred crores of rupees to newly created real estate companies.

Khemka was transferred this week from his post of director general, consolidations of holdings and land records, where he was posted for less than two months. He has now been posted as managing director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, which was last under an officer 12 years his junior.

On October 9, the Haryana government had notified a policy to provide security to whistle-blowers and Right to Information activists. Khemka's transfer was done two days later.