Upset over political interference: Sanjiv Chaturvedi

Whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjeev Chaturvedi with his mother at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Whistleblower-bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who won the Ramon Magsaysay award on Wednesday, said he was highly disappointed with the political interference in the administrative work of the country’s premier health institution, AIIMS, and the PMO’s response to it.

Mr. Chaturvedi told IANS in an interview that political interference had increased under the Narendra Modi government.

“During the past 3 to 4 years, a lot of unwanted activities have happened at the AIIMS. I am deeply disappointed with the Prime Minister’s Office. Honest bureaucrats are not allowed to work independently as there is a lot of interference by the political class in the administrative work,” he told IANS at his official residence.

The 40-year-old, 2002 batch, Indian Forest Service officer of Haryana cadre, said bureaucrats in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were also subjected to humiliation if they worked against the government’s will.

Emphasising that he was highly inspired by Modi’s slogan Na Khaunga Na Khane Dunga or “Zero tolerance against corruption,” Mr. Chaturvedi said he was later disappointed, when action was taken against him and not the corrupt officials after he exposed corruption at the AIIMS and other departments, where he had served earlier.

CVO post removed

Mr. Chaturvedi, who is currently the deputy secretary at AIIMS, was removed from the post of Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the institute in August 2014.