Whistleblower officer Ashok Khemka accuses Haryana govt. of victimising him

Chandigarh: Haryana's whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka has accused the state government of victimising him and sitting over his performance appraisal report for the period 2012-2013, the time he acted against land scams and cancelled mutation of the land deal between Robert Vadra and DLF.In a letter to Haryana Chief Secretary S C Choudhary, Khemka, who had in March sought a central deputation, said the Centre had not included his name in the offer list because of “missing Performance Appraisal Reports (PARs)” for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 and absence of vigilance clearance by the state government.“It has come to my knowledge in an application made under RTI Act that my PAR for the period--01.04.2012 to 15.10.2012, has not been appraised,” the 1991-batch officer, currently holding the post of Secretary, Haryana Government, Department of Archives, said in the letter yesterday.“This omission seems to be deliberate to victimise me because the reporting period coincided with actions taken by me against several land scams, including a massive corruption combining land-licensing and land-releases forcing landowner-farmers to undertake distress sale of their farmlands to the builder mafia..,” he alleged. Khemka, who had hit the headlines for cancelling mutation of Vadra's land deal with realty giant DLF in Gurgaon in October 2012, said, “Two quasi-judicial orders made on October 12 and October 15, 2012 concerned companies of a VVIP. Why should I be penalised for wilful omission of the accepting authority to perform his duties to appraise my PAR”. “Several letters were written to your office in this regard, but all were arbitrarily dumped. I should not be victimised further,” Khema, who has faced over 40 transfers in his career, said.The IAS officer also alleged that there is “tremendous witch-hunting and hounding after October 15, 2012 with full political patronage of the present ruling party at the state and the Centre”.Asked about the letter, the Chief Secretary told PTI that it had been written to him only yesterday and “(after going through it)I will have the matter looked into”. In 2013 the state government had charge sheeted Khemka for “wrongly” cancelling mutation of the deal.The Haryana government had earlier alleged that cancelling the mutation was an administratively improper step by Khemka since he stood transferred as Managing Director of Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) on October 11, 2012 from his earlier post of Director General Consolidation of Land Holdings and Land Records-cum-Inspector General of Registration.In the letter, Khemka said that regarding his deputation as Joint Secretary to Government of India, he has learnt that the Centre had not included his name in the offer list because of “missing PARs” for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 and absence of vigilance clearance by the state government. The IAS officer had made a formal request for central deputation to the Chief Secretary on March 15 this year and it was recently forwarded to the Centre by the state government. Khemka has mentioned that his PAR for the period, April 1, 2012 to October 15, 2012, has not been appraised.From October 15, 2012 to March 31, 2013, “PAR has not been disclosed till date though the outer limit for disclosure under the rules was January, 15, 2014.”In the letter, Khemka mentioned that he got outstanding grading from 2007-08 to 2011-12 and since his performance has not been assessed for six months “an average of the grades earned in previous years may be taken as the assessed grade of the PAR for the period, April 1, 2012 to October 15, 2012, and the same along with my self-appraisal may be taken on record for all intents and purposes.”“It is distressing that the PAR for the period, 15.10.2012 to 31.03.2013, is being retained illegally with malafide intentions in your office under instructions of the political executive..,” he alleged in his letter.There is “tremendous witch-hunting and hounding after October 15, 2012 with full political patronage of the present ruling party at the state and the Centre,” he charged. He also said that there are several media stories about “false cases being foisted upon me to meet political ends”. “I cannot be tormented and penalised by the deliberate and wilful acts of malfeasance of the authorities.I request you to take action under the rules with respect to my PARs for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 in a fair and unbiased manner..,” he said in the letter.