The suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal, an IAS officer of the 2010 batch from Uttar Pradesh cadre for reportedly taking stringent action against illegal sand mining is creating an interesting space for various debates. A Sub-divisional magistrate posted in Ghaziabad before her suspension by the UP government, Durga Nagpal’s case is multi layered and has various connotations. The first reaction to the IAS officer’s suspension of course is the blatant hold of political clout and corruption in high places and the price that honest official have to pay. The second reaction is to try and remember just when was the last time an honest official paid for integrity and commitment to one’s work. Both reactions are related in a sense, for in a country prone to the hold of political clout, not many officers have it in them to stick their necks out and take on the system as it were. Most fear the kind of current administrative and Government reaction that Nagpal is facing now. Many opt for the easier way of turning a blind eye and making the most out of the situation by taking cuts for to take a stand would mean career related harassments in the form of suspensions or transfers or even death. Ten years ago, Satyendra Dubey a project director at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was killed in Gaya in the state of Bihar after fighting corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project. Another IAS officer whose track record with an onest zeal for getting work done and not suffering the calls made by politicians is Ashok Khemka who has been transferred a record 44th time in his 22-year old career till date.
India’s track record when it comes to corruption in various sectors, including the bureaucracy is not flattering in the least. A 2005 study by Transparency International, a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development found that more than 62% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office. Another survey in 2009 of the leading economies of Asia, revealed the Indian bureaucracy to be not just the least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia; it was also found that working with India`s civil servants was a “slow and painful” process. But even as it is easy to blame the system, it is the path that people like Durga Nagpal and others like Stayendra Dubey and Ashok Khemka that continues to blow part of the lid off the great muck that political corruption is doing to the country and its administration.
Even as the politics behind Durga Nagpal’s suspension gets played out in Uttar Pradesh with the state Chief Minister justifying his government’s action saying that the IAS officer’s action of demolishing a wall of a mosque could have led to ‘communal repercussions’, it is pertinent to see the larger picture of the politics and the ambit of financial gain that the sand mining industry is making. Sand mining on river beds and other minor minerals without an environmental clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests was banned by a Supreme Court order on February 27 2012. This order has now been further re-affirmed by the National Green Tribunal, a special fast-track court to handle cases pertaining to environmental issues on 05 August 2013 when it issued a restraint order against all sand mining activity being carried out across the country without environmental clearance. The Tribunal has now directed all the mining officers and police officers concerned of all the states to ensure compliance of its orders while noting that the loss caused to the state exchequer due to illegal sand mining may run into lakhs of crores of rupees. The ‘lakhs of crores of rupees’ area is where the political clout and the hand of corruption emerges. The country unfortunately does not have a good track record of encouraging honest officials and the cases of Nagpal, Dubey and Khemka are proof of this reality. Even as the country prides itself on the Right to Information Act, which deems to grant citizens the right to have access to information, the bitter truth is that the safety of people who use the act are not given any protection from threats to life and safety. A common citizen cannot expect to be protected when the country’s top officials are not spared from the politics of the system.