How one can be appointed to an important post like Chairman, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), even if one is not eligible for the post? Present Chairman, Central Ground Water Board was appointed in a messy process violating all rules and advertisement conditions for the post. Afroz Alam Sahil’s expose about Manipulation and Fraud in the Ministry of Water Resources.
Nothing is more important than water as life is not possible without this. One hopes that government must be concerned with the issue of availability of water to the common masses but the recent decision of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India to appoint Sushil Gupta as the Chairman of Central Ground Water Board defies our beliefs. Ministry of Water Resources’ Central Ground Water Boards’ Chairman appointment and its process point at the illegality and the non-seriousness with which the government treats water issue.
On December 9, 2011 the Board gave the advertisement for the post of Chairman, Central Ground Water Board on deputation basis in the employment news. One Shakeel Ahmad, Chief Scientist in the CSIR- National Geophysical Research Institute (CSIR-NGRI), Hyderabad applied for this post in February, 2012 through the proper channel of CSIR-NGRI with all the relevant documents.
After the short listing of all the candidates, who applied for this post by Ministry of Water Resources and UPSC, Shakeel Ahmad was found the only suitable candidate and as a result he was called for a personal talk on July, 2012 at UPSC, New Delhi. To his utter surprise, when he reached the UPSC, he found that Ministry of Water Resources communicated to UPSC to postpone the process of appointment for the CGWB. The reason for postponement of this process was told to Shakeel Ahmad that the ministry wants to consider some internal candidate from the Central Ground Water Board.
As per the advertisement for this post ‘the the departmental officers in the feeder category who are in the direct line of promotion are not eligible for considerations for appointment on deputation’. Now, its beyond imagination that when the advertisement by the under secretary, Govt. of India Vineeth Abraham stated that internal candidates are not eligible to apply for the post of Chairman, CGWB. A question is how come under these conditions an internal person named Sushil Gupta of the same department was appointed as the Chairman violating the advertisement as well as recruitment rules.
The decision of appointment for the post of Chairman, CGWB on deputation basis was made only after no internal candidate was found eligible in the feeder category through DPC. The advertisement was issued after obtaining approval from the Minister of Water Resources as representation from Mr. Sushil Gupta, the internal candidate dated 1 Nov, 2011 was not considered for this post.
Information got through RTI replies shows that the entire process of appointing the present Chairman of Central Ground Water Board Sushil Gupta was completed in just two days when the Ministry of Water Resources itself declined offering this post to Sushil Gupta in November, 2011 as he was not eligible for this post.
One wonders what was the need of such a hurry in this appointment. The manner in which the present chairman was appointed shows something messy. Its beyond imagination why the whole Central Ground Water Board is so concerned for the appointment of Sushil Gupta. The Board wrote to Ministry of Water Resource for relaxation of 3 months in required service conditions of the internal candidate and the Board also sought 7 months relaxation in service conditions from the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India just to allegedly accommodate Sushil Gupta, who was otherwise not eligible for the post of Chairman, Central Ground Water Board.
DoPT refused to relax the service conditions but the Board again requested the DoPT to relax the service conditions. This time DoPT relaxed the service conditions and as result Sushil Gupta became eligible. Again, a pertinent question arises why the Central Ground Water Board was insisting on changing the service conditions. Does this not mean that all was done allegedly to accommodate the present Chairman Sushil Gupta on this post, when he was not eligible for the concerned post?
