HOW BADAL SAVED HIS ‘BLUEEYED’ PCS OFFICER

‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE’ Day before poll code came into effect, exCM exonerated Dr Amarpal Singh with a warning

Punjab Civil Service (PCS) officer Dr Amarpal Singh, whom the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had once punished for being “guilty of gross negligence, to say the least” in ₹ 24-crore iron ore scam, was later exonerated by Badal by just giving a warning.

“The officer is warned to be careful in future”, wrote Badal, a day before the implementation of election code of conduct, salvaging him of the punishment in the scam involving purchase of iron ore by the Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation (PAFC), in which IAS officer Kirpa Shankar Saroj was punished. The relief given by the CM has paved the way for Dr Amarpal’s elevation to the IAS rank. In fact, his name is included in the list sent by the present government to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in April.

PATIALA: Punjab Civil Service (PCS) officer Dr Amarpal Singh, whom the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had once punished for being “guilty of gross negligence, to say the least” in Rs 24-crore iron ore scam, was later exonerated by Badal by just giving a warning.

“The officer is warned to be careful in future”, wrote Badal, a day before the implementation of election code of conduct, salvaging him of the punishment in the scam involving purchase of iron ore by the Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation (PAFC), in which IAS officer Kirpa Shankar Saroj was punished. The relief given by the CM has paved the way for Dr Amarpal’s elevation to the IAS rank. In fact, his name is included in the list sent by the present government to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in April.

The iron ore scam took place in 2004 when 1989-batch IAS officer Saroj was the managing director (MD) of PAFC and 1993batch PCS officer Dr Amarpal was the additional managing director. Hindustan Times had broken the iron ore scam.

While Saroj was punished on the advice of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Dr Amarpal was punished on the advice of Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) in 2013.

The PPSC, acting on the then CM’s remarks ‘major penalty’, had recommended stopping his three annual increments and reduction in time scale (demotion of rank) under the Punjab

Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal), Rule 1970.

BADAL IGNORED ADVICE OF TWO EX-CHIEF SECYS

Badal’s order providing relief to Dr Amarpal was issued on January 2, 2017. His order was not only contrary to his previous order, but also against the advice of two former chief secretaries Ramesh Inder Singh and Rakesh Singh, and inquiry officer Romila Dubey, a retired IAS officer, who all had held Saroj and Dr Amarpal guilty.

“The Punjab Agro Foodgrains Corporation has suffered financial loss due to the negligence and connivance of both these officers. Hence, both of these officers deserve...major punishments for this negligence,” observed Rakesh Singh. In response to this, the then CM had once ordered “major penalty”.

Notably, Badal had earlier also helped the PCS officer by not his ordering suspension, while the IAS officer was suspended.

Dr Amarpal, a blue-eyed official of the Badal regime, remained on other key posts, including chief executive officer (CEO) of Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) and secretary, NRI affairs.

PCS OFFICER’S APPEAL

After being awarded major punishment in 2013, Dr Amarpal moved an application before the then CM on May 3, 2016, seeking review of the punishment, pleading that he was innocent.

Even as an appeal under the Punjab Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules-1970 can be filed within six months of punishment order, Badal directed the personnel department to seek the advice of the advocate general (AG) on whether the CM can hear the appeal. Also, the PPSC had confirmed the order for major punishment to the PCS officer, as suggested by the Punjab government.

In his advice, the AG said, “The review petition can be heard and decided by same authority which has passed the orders against which review petition has been preferred”. Banking upon this advice, without taking any note of inquiry officer’s findings and remarks of two former chief secretaries, Badal, on January 2, passed an order: “The officer is warned to be careful in future.”

When the poll code was in force, the Punjab personnel department sent the file to the PPSC in mid-March to confirm the CM’s order and the commission, in its meeting on April 16, endorsed it.

Notably, the PAFC ventured into iron ore export without any mandate in 2004. And it was Dr Amarpal who released an advance payment to a private company for importing iron ore, while going against the legal advice.