Follow-up
Ab Sharma
Early Times Report
Rajouri, Oct 14: After being attached and threatened with death for his reluctance to execute illegal orders of a BJP MLA, a Block Development Officer from Rajouri has been transferred to a far-off area.
The BDO, Jagan Nath, was attached a few months ago with the head office of the Rural Development Department for failing to execute orders including issuance of payment in favour of dead persons. Now, he has been transferred to Mahore, which is some 230 kms from Jammu.
Sources in the RDD said following "persistent political pressures", Nath had to be transferred to a far off place as "punishment for having spoken to Early Times over how official machinery was being used to help the BJP MLA and his henchmen."
Even though many posts of BDO lie vacant in Rajouri, Nath has been transferred to far off place only to send a clear message to other officers: those who don't obey orders of the BJP will meet similar fate.
A senior official confirmed that his junior colleague (Nath) has been threatened of dire consequences including suspension from service should he speak to any newspaper.
"We are helpless. We couldn't help him… Though he happens to be very upright and no charge was proved against him as to why had he been attached all these months, he was transferred because of political vendetta," said the official, pleading anonymity.
He said several posts of BDO are vacant in Rajouri including Kotranka, where the chair is vacant for three years.
Even though the locals have been holding roadside demonstrations, the government is unwilling to depute any official there for "political reasons."
In August, Nath, the BDO for Lamberi area of Nowshera, received threat calls that he would be first transferred to some "volatile area and subsequently killed along with his family."
Nath, who was working in Lamberi area from April 20 to June 17, only to be subsequently attached, had refused to bow before political pressures. He was subsequently beaten by BJP workers.
Though Nath had submitted a formal complaint in police post Lamberi, the cops denied to register his complaint due to political pressures. The duty officer of Lamberi post had confirmed that the complaint was not registered, but he couldn't give any satisfying reasons for it. |
