CHARGESHEET AGAINST DM OF BAREILLY SOON

LUCKNOW: The state government is all set to initiate disciplinary proceedings against district magistrate of Bareilly Raghvendra Vikram Singh for his controversial Facebook post that came amid communal violence in Kasganj recently.

“Finding him prima facie guilty of misconduct as a public servant on the basis of the divisional commissioner’s report, the government has decided to take departmental action against Singh and a chargesheet will be served on him in a day or two,” a senior official dealing with the matter disclosed.

Departmental action, according sources, is a wider term that may mean anything right from mild punishment like an adverse entry into the concerning public servant’s character roll or transfer to suspension or even termination.

“The DM will be asked to give a point-wise reply to the charges framed against him within a timeframe that will be specified in the chargesheet and the quantum of punishment will be determined only after the reply,” sources said. A 2005 batch promotee IAS officer, Singh’s FB comment, posted two days after a youth Chandan Gupta was killed during a ‘tiranga yatra’ in Kasganj on January 26, had created a flutter in the social and political circles.

“This has become a trend to enter a Muslim-dominated area and raise anti-Pakistan slogans,” he had said in the post written in Hindi.

The post went viral on the social media platforms drawing government’s attention and prompting the department of Appointment and Personnel to seek a report from divisional commissioner, Bareilly, PV Jagan Mohan within 24 hours. The commissioner in his “suggestive” report sent on last Friday did not give a clean chit to the officer.

The decision to serve a chargesheet on the DM is learnt to have been taken after chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who also holds the portfolio of the department of Appointment and Personnel, gave his nod following a discussion with chief secretary Rajive Kumar.