Warehousing corporation MD terminates services of 8 staffers

IN APRIL, A CBI PROBE WAS SOUGHT INTO ALLEGED ILLEGAL AND ARBITRARY APPOINTMENTS AT THE CORPORATION

PANCHKULA: The managing director of Haryana State Warehousing Corporation, Panchkula, has terminated the services of eight employees appointed during the tenure of IAS officer Ashok Khemka.

In March, the additional chief secretary to Haryana’s agriculture and farmers welfare department had forwarded a letter of chief secretary, Haryana personnel department, along with a complaint of Lokayukta Haryana to inquire into the recruitments made in 2009-10 and submit the report to the chief secretary office. In April, a committee comprising senior officers was constituted to conduct a fact-finding inquiry on the appointments made during the said period.

The report revealed that 13 officials lacked experience as required and in some cases, there was a violation of the Reservation Act, following which notices were sent to the employees, of whom two were dismissed earlier and services of eight were terminated on June 8. Now, three employees are left.

“In one case, there was one post, but jobs were given to two candidates. They were not even from the parent state (Haryana), but from Punjab,” the report stated. Services of Sandeep Kumar, who was appointed as district manager in 2009, and Dharmendra Kumar Pandey, who was appointed as assistant manager (quality control) in 2010, were terminated as they “did not possess requisite experience in handling and preservation of agricultural produce.”

Jagdish Chand, who was appointed as manager grade-II in 2010, had applied for general category, but was selected against the post meant for SC category. Yatender Veer Tyagi appointed as manager grade-II was found to be lacking experience. The termination order of Deepak Kumar Dwivedi mentions, “On examination of his case of appointment as technical assistant in HSWC, it has been found that he did not possess the requisite experience in handling and preservation of agriculture produce.” His selection was found to be ‘contrary to the terms and conditions mentioned in advertisement hence in order to meet the ends of Justice the services are hereby terminated with immediate effect’, it added.

Other officers whose services have been terminated include three technical assistants -- Manish Shukla, Rajesh Kumar, and Dilbag Singh -- who were appointed in 2010. It may be noted here that in April, a CBI probe was sought into alleged illegal and arbitrary appointments at the corporation. On April 20, MD Sanjeev Verma had sought registration of a criminal case against Khemka and three others for allegedly making appointments at HSWC in an illegal and arbitrary manner during the tenure of the senior IAS officer. A day later, Khemka filed a counter-complaint alleging that Verma’s complaint was false and mischievous.