In a significant development for the Rajasthan bureaucracy, IPS officer Pankaj Choudhary, a known face in the bureaucratic circle of the state, has opened a front against two top-ranking IAS officers, Sudhansh Pant and Bhaskar A. Sawant, over a training programme. It all started with Choudhary being invited to an IIM training programme at Kolkata by a Delhi-based sponsor, BPRD. It was a five-day training programme from November 17th to 21st.
As the state government’s permission is required to participate in any training program, the Police Headquarters sent Choudhary’s file seeking permission to the Home Department two months ago. But despite repeated reminders, the Home Department kept on sitting on that file, and the training began in between.
An infuriated Choudhary has now filed a petition in the court against senior IAS officer Sudhansh Pant, who was the state’s Chief Secretary and is currently on central deputation, and Bhaskar A. Sawant, Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department. Choudhary has alleged that Pant and Sawant worked with ulterior motives and withheld his file. Choudhary also alleges in his petition that two IAS officers recommended sending a corrupt IAS officer, who had been jailed for corruption and was suspended for a long time, for training.
Actually the state govt had allowed IAS officer Anil Agrawal to participate in a month-long training programme at Mussourie. Agrawal is the same IAS officer who had been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2016 in a bribery case related to the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). It piqued Choudhary.
The IPS officer contends that not taking any decision on his file is against the rules; hence, he decided to take legal action against the duo.
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