Despite 10 transfers in five years and two presidential orders issued in his favour, the case of whistleblower Indian Forest officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi is getting more and more curious.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had written to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) in 2011 that since the CBI was willing to probe the plantation and other scams that Chaturvedi had unearthed, the MoEF should take up the matter of registration of FIR with the state government.
Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan wrote to the Hooda government to register an FIR in order that a CBI probe be initiated against the multiple forestry scams in Haryana. Ms Natarajan’s letter stated: “It has been decided, with the approval of the competent authority, to assign the investigation into the allegations by Sanjiv Chaturvedi to the CBI.”
When Ms Natarajan was asked this Wednesday whether the state government had initiated any action following her directive, she replied, “The situation remains the same as earlier. There has been no movement on the case so far.”
Chaturvedi had written to the PMO in March 2011 seeking a CBI probe into these scams. His file had been forwarded to the department of personnel and training (DoPT), which wrote back recently to the PMO stating that the MoEF‘s demand should be dismissed as “utra-vires” ( being beyond its power).
When minister of state in the PMO V. Narayanasamy was contacted for his comments on this entire matter, he said, “He (Chaturvedi) must follow all procedures. If he is being harassed, he should have written directly to the (Haryana) chief minister. He cannot write directly to the ministry of environment unless he is released by the state government.”