IAS officers carp at Jacob Thomas' spite'; meet Chief Secretary S M Vijayanand
The officers say if the officer's vindictive attitude continued, the government schemes and ambitious programmes would take a hit.
Thiruvananthapuram: IAS officers from new entrant to senior most in service are up in arms against vigilance director Jacob Thomas' vindictive attitude in the wake of raids carried out at additional chief secretary (finance) K M Abraham’s flat. A section of senior officers met chief secretary S M Vijayanand and complained about his malicious and intimidating action. The officers pointed out that the argument that the raid was to carry out measurement was absolutely rubbish. To know the details of measurement they should have gone to corporation office where documents of the building are easily available.
“Why do you have to send a team of six cops and an engineer to one of the senior most official of the state and that too for drawings which are lodged with the corporation? Their argument does not hold ground,” said a senior officer. “I think there is an attempt to show that the vigilance director is holier than thou,” said an official. “He is facing allegations of financial irregularities. These allegations are real and not just off the cuff. Proper inspections were carried out against him and financial irregularities were unearthed. May be it is tit for tat approach. Inspection is a professional thing and the raids are not only unprofessional but also amounts to hitting below the belt,” he added.
The manner in which the raids were carried out when the officer’s wife was alone in the house, strengthens the suspicion about vigilance director's ulterior motive. “It is probably to foist a false case which is the flavour of the day,” said an official. “No protocol or procedure had been followed while conducting the raids. In normal case you need to go with some search warrant issued by a magistrate before whom a sworn affidavit has to be given about the reasons for such an action,” he added.
The senior officers are going to discuss the matter yet again on Friday. There are FIRs against several officers which had been filed without any substance. and IAS officers fear that these could be misused to settle scores. The officers say if the officer’s vindictive attitude continued, the government schemes and ambitious programmes would take a hit. At the end of the day people will suffer because these officers there to serve the public.
