Overruling objections by the chief of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has removed the chief vigilance officer of the DGCA who had been conducting corruption probes against senior officers and recommended action against at least 12.
As the CVO, Samir Sahay had probed irregularities in dues owed by flying clubs, the leak of question papers for pilot exams, as well as investigated the case of sons and daughters of top DGCA officials working for private airlines.
According to sources, Director General of Civil Aviation E K Bharat Bhushan had urged the Aviation Ministry not to take the vigilance charge from Sahay, saying this would derail the ongoing investigations.
However, in an order this week that reportedly had the sanction of Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Sahay was stripped of his CVO charge, which was handed over to Joint Director General of Civil Aviation Anil Srivastava, who is also the Chairman and Managing Director of Pawan Hans. Srivastava’s appointment has raised eyebrows as he currently handles finance, administration and planning and, in what could a conflict of interest, now gets vigilance.
According to a senior ministry officer, Sahay’s report on irregularities in flying clubs has also been given a quiet burial. While Minister Ajit Singh recently ordered FIRs against all flying clubs, the order has since been revised, a fresh probe ordered and most of the clubs let of the hook, said the officer.
While Sahay declined to comment, Bhushan said: “These are orders of the government, I have nothing more to say.”
Ajit Singh called these routine transfers. “The CVO had additional charge of the DGCA, which has now been handed over to another officer. He will go back to his original charge of Pawan Hans,” he said. “In any case, I have accepted his recommendations for major penalty against DGCA officials.”
A CVC official said the new CVO had got full-time charge and the commission had no problem with that.
Following his investigation into the question paper leak, Sahay had recently handed over the matter to the CBI, which last month conducted searches in this regard.
In his report into flying clubs not paying dues to the government, Sahay had recommended disciplinary action against at least 12 senior DGCA officers, including two Joint Director Generals of Civil Aviation A K Saran and Charan Das. Following the report, Saran had been placed under suspension.
On the basis of his probe into top DGCA officials whose sons/ daughters were working for private carriers, in violation of government guidelines, Bhushan had written a strong letter to Secretary, Civil Aviation, S N A Zaidi requesting strong action. Sahay had also recommended action against two senior DGCA officials who had manipulated flying licences for their pilot daughters.
However, action against officers remained stalled, said a senior official. They included A K Saran and Charan Das (Joint Director Generals of Civil Aviation), V P Massey (Director, Airworthiness), R S Passi (Director, Air Safety), M M Kaushal (Assistant Director), Rajiv Gaur (Assistant Director), R K Yadav (Senior Airwothiness Officer) and B S Nehra (Pilot).
The above is from the Indian Express.
When the government was arguing for not bringing in the Lokpal Bill, one of the excuses was there were already agencies which went into corruption charges.
The above example shows how the existing agencies are foiled in their attempts to root out corruption.
Here, the Civil Aviation Minister is instrumental in scuttling the probe.
Nothing new.
If it was not Ajit Singh, it would have been Praful Patel.
They are all the same.
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