UP IAS officer requests half salary or transfer, alleges interference by minister, MLA

Lucknow ( The Indian View Team) : 2023-batch Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer Rinku Singh Rahi has written a five-page letter to the state's Appointment and Personnel Department, requesting either that his salary be reduced by half or that he be transferred to a post where he can discharge his duties in accordance with the law.

Currently posted as SDM (Judicial), Rahi argued in his letter that the position involves only around four hours of work a day and therefore suggested that he be paid only half his salary if he continues in the role.

In the letter, Rahi also made allegations regarding interference in administrative functioning, naming Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Swatantra Dev Singh and BJP MLA Gauri Shankar Verma.

According to Rahi, while he was serving as SDM in Jalaun, the District Magistrate allegedly instructed, in the presence of MLA Gauri Shankar Verma, that no action should be taken against cases involving illegal land occupation and encroachments in the Jalaun tehsil area.

The IAS officer further alleged that a conspiracy was hatched to obstruct an impartial inquiry into alleged illegal encroachments involving the name of Cabinet Minister Swatantra Dev Singh. He claimed that a dispute was deliberately created over a cold storage facility owned by Ramraja Niranjan, a block chief and a close relative of the minister.

Rahi alleged that he was transferred from the post of SDM, Jalaun, to SDM (Judicial) in haste even before the committee constituted to investigate the controversy had submitted its report.

Rahi's letter also referred to an inspection he conducted at Ramraja Niranjan's cold storage facility while serving as SDM, Jalaun, following the fire tragedy in Lucknow that claimed 15 lives. During a 10-minute mock fire drill at the facility, he allegedly found that no firefighting measures had been initiated.

The officer further criticised the functioning of the Jalaun district administration, alleging that the District Magistrate's public grievance programme, Janta Darshan, had become a mere formality. Instead of addressing the root causes of public grievances, only temporary solutions were being provided, he claimed.

In his letter, Rahi requested that he either be posted to another tehsil in Jalaun or transferred to another district where he could perform his duties in accordance with established rules. He also stated that if such a posting was not possible in Uttar Pradesh, he should be considered for deputation to another state.