New Delhi: Haryana government remains in dithering mode over transfer of one of its top IAS officer Ajit Balaji Joshi, heading the all-important Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), despite directions from Centre’s Dept of Personnel & Training in June this year.
The IAS officer was cleared by the Appointment Committee for transfer from Haryana to Punjab cadre but Khattar government hasn’t relieved him, citing acute shortage of administrators in the state and also impending retirement of as many as 11 senior bureaucrats by year end.
While reports suggest that the officer was also being persuaded to continue in the state for littler longer, owing to ‘critical assignments’ at hand, Lok Sabha MP Ritesh Pandey has leveled sensational allegations against him & two other senior officers of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP).
Alleging series of financial irregularities in HSVP under the watch of Ajit Balaji Joshi, the BSP MP claims that the officers have acted in connivance with real estate mafias and their corrupt practices led to a whopping loss of Rs 5,000 crores revenue to the state exchequer.
He claims that the officers are selling government owned land at throwaway prices & hence incurring unprecedented loss to the HSVP. Citing e-auction details of a HSVP hospital site in Sector 56 of Gurugram, he alleges that the land was sold to Max Hospitals at a giveaway price of Rs 80 crore in 2021 while the same plot received bidding of Rs 462 crore in 2014. This alone led to loss of Rs 400 crore.
The 2003 batch IAS officer heads some of most high-profile departments of state. He is the chief administrator of Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) and also the CEO of Panchkula Metropolitan Development Authority (PMDA).
The senior bureaucrat was to be shifted to Punjab cadre, where her wife Gauri Parashar Joshi is posted as Special Secretary of School education. His wife belongs to Odisha cadre and on grounds of marriage, they were about to be shifted to the same Punjab cadre.
