'Charges against ICAR official baseless'

By Nirnimesh Kumar

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. A one-man inquiry committee has given a clean- chit to an Assistant Director-General (ADG) of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), dismissing charges against him as ``baseless and motivated''.

The inquiry committee had been appointed by the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, under Dr. Kiran Singh, Deputy Director-General (Animal Sciences), ICAR, to inquire into alleged misconduct of Dr. Sadachari Singh Tomar, ADG, Agricultural Research Information System (ARIS).

Following the termination of his tenure as ADG (ARIS) in January this year, Dr. Tomar had accused ICAR of victimising him for exposing corruption in it.

After having terminated his tenure the Council had posted him at the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE), Bhopal, in a rank lower than that of Senior Scientist even as the inquiry was under way.

He had refused to go to Bhopal alleging that he had been demoted two ranks and sent to CIAE on the basis of alleged adverse remarks in his Annual Assessment Reports (AARs) of 1997- 98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

He had accused the top brass of ICAR of taking umbrage to his raising objections to a proposal to purchase computer items of Rs. 35 crores. He has also filed a complaint to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in this regard.

The Council, through Deputy Director-General (Engineering), Dr. Anwar Alam, had slapped 33 charges on Dr. Tomar.

In his reply to the allegations, Dr. Tomar made serious counter- allegations with supporting documents relating to certain functional aspects of the Council.

The inquiry committee sought reply to the counter-allegations from Dr. Alam relating to the Director-General, Dr. R.S. Paroda, Dr. Mangala Rai, Mr. K. Chaudhary, Mr. A.K. Jain, Mr. R.P. Jain and Mr. J.P. Mittal and Mr. P.L. Gautam, Notational Director, National Agriculture Technology Project (NATP), and Mr. N.S. Randhawa, Deputy Secretary, Administration.

Mr. Randhawa responded to the inquiry committee's queries but Dr. Alam refused to respond to it which delayed the inquiry, the report said.

On the charges against Dr. Tomar, the inquiry officer held: ``They are generalised and vague in nature, and these had neither been analysed nor supported/justified with documents. More so, no comments have been provided on replies of Dr. Tomar.''

Dr. Alam alleged that Dr. Tomar's appointment as ADG, ARIS, was a miscarriage of the recruitment process of which the Engineering Division and he, in particular, had become a victim.

The inquiry committee dismissed the allegation commenting that ``it is highly improbable on the part of senior officials of ICAR to indicate/find faults with the Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB), which is at par with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), especially its Chairman and erstwhile Deputy Director-General (DDG) by names.

``There are indications on the files that Dr. Alam did not like this officer (Dr. Tomar) right from the beginning, and this later on developed into serious differences.

It was further alleged that with a very bad record Dr. Tomar had managed certain awards possibly through his exuberance and capacity to exploit rules and procedures.

The inquiry committee rejected this allegation as well. It observed: ``It appears that all his awards, writing of books, research papers and meritorious works have been undermined purposely with a view to spoiling his career.''

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