Upset over Shunglu Committee accusing him of involvement in CWG bunglings, a senior IAS officer has sought permission from Union Cabinet Secretary to file a defamation case against the PM—appointed panel for “dragging” his name “into disrepute”.
K K Sharma, an IAS officer of 1983 batch who was involved in implementation of several Commonwealth Games projects as Principal Secretary of PWD in Delhi Government, rejected the panel’s findings and accused it of not doing “due diligence” while finalising the report which, he said, had caused him public humiliation that was “extremely demotivating, stressful and depressing”.
The Shunglu Committee in its report about City Infrastructure Projects, had slammed Mr. Sharma among others for various irregularities as well delays in key projects like Barapullah Nallah elevated road and Ring Road Bypass.
“It is extremely demotivating, stressful and also depressing for any public servant to face public humiliation and suffer loss of 28 years of hard-earned reputation through what appears to be a casually written report,” the letter, uploaded by Union Home Ministry on its web site, said.
54-year-old Sharma, who was transferred as advisor to the administrator of Chandigarh last month, also requested the Union Government to “take a position against the casualness with which the Committee has dragged my name into disrepute.”
“I may be given permission to file a defamation case against the members of the High Level Committee for the damage already done to my name,” he said in his five-page representation to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar.
Mr. Sharma also pointed out that he had joined as Secretary, PWD only in July, 2008 and contended that he cannot be held responsible for delays in work on various projects prior to his joining.
“The Committee may well be correct in observing that there had been a 3-year period of inactivity from 2003 to 2006 which compromised every subsequent stage of planning and execution, If the committee felt that this was the major cause of the mess, then who are the persons responsible for this? The Committee does not provide an answer,” he said.
The officer said work on none of the 38 projects, including 23 flyovers and grade separators was operational and work on some of them had not even begun when he joined in July, 2008.
“As a result of intensive efforts and leadership I provided, projects began to be completed almost every month and all 38 PWD projects were operational before the Games,” he said.
Mr. Sharma had served in the UN mission in Kosovo from 2000 to 2005.
Mr. Sharma also accused the committee of not making “elementary effort” of seeking the comments of the department to gain appreciation of facts and ground realities.
“Therefore it has been grossly negligent in making sweeping generalisations and in particular in naming me a person responsible for the alleged shortcomings,” Mr. Sharma said.
The Shunglu Committee has also blamed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged bunglings in various Games projects.
The Home Ministry had last month sent the report of the Shunglu Committee to Delhi government asking it to file a detailed response on the findings of the panel within a month.
The city government, which already rejected the findings of the panel as a “product of paranoia”, had sent a brief report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month, trashing the report.
Currently, the City government is preparing a detailed report as response to the Shunglu Committee report.
