Whistle-blower Sanjiv Chaturvedi has decided to donate 30,000 USD which he will receive with Ramon Magsaysay award. Talking to Governance Now he said that the money will be donated to poor patients who come to AIIMS  for treatment.

Chaturvedi has won the award along with five others including another Indian Anshu Gupta.

“He has been recognized for his exemplary integrity,courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing corruption in public office to ensure that government honorably serves the people of India,” read the citation by Ramon Magsaysay award foundation.  Earlier, in June 2009, he received the Manjunath shamugam Integrity award by Alumini of IIM, Bangalore, award for good governance by the Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS) in 2011 and S R jindal Prize for crusade against corruption in 2012.

Whistleblower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi wins Magsaysay award


Chaturvedi, a 2002-batch IFS officer from Haryana cadre comes from a family of freedom fighters. A techie from NIT Allahabad, he joined IFS through UPSC and received two medals from President of India for excellence in training. He served as Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), in Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jhajjar and Panchkula Headquarters from August 2005 to June 2012 and later shifted to Delhi to get appointed as deputy secretary and CVO at AIIMS Delhi. This was done after the central government passed an order (under special circumstances) to relieve him from Haryana.

READ: Anshu Gupta |  In rags lay his raison d’être

Chaturvedi faced 12 transfers in five year tenure of his service in Haryana for his fearless action against corrupt officials and politicians. He was slapped four criminal charges but he remained resolute to do his best as an officer.

Chaturvedi’s endeavour exposed various scams in Haryana. Here are some of the famous scams exposed by him:
 

• Destruction of Saraswati wildlife sanctuary in Kurukshetra (largest protected area of the State) through illicit felling of trees, poaching of rare species like hog deer during construction of Hansi-Butana canal in May, 2007; The Supreme Court constituted central empowered committee (CEC) found that the charges of violation were true and Haryana government had to pay a fine of Rs 1 crore as compensation to the damage.

• Expenditure of crores of rupees of public funds on a private land owned by Prahlad Singh Gillakhera, independent MLA and chief parliamentary secretary situated in the name of Herbal Park in Fatehabad; After the intervention through a PIL, the state government had to declare this area as a notified forest and had to transfer the management to the forest department.

• Multi-crore plantation scam in Jhajjar, Haryana in which 40 field staff were suspended and chargesheeted in 2009, one of such largest action in the state.

• Jui-Mithathal feeder plantation scam in Hisar in which bogus bills were raised for non-existent plantation on a 200 acre patch; three field officials were suspended and case was sent to higher authorities for further action.
  
   
• Scam in providing license to a large plywood unit in Hisar which was sealed by the officer in January, 2010 and finally they had to pay actual license fee.

 
His another exemplary action was to get highest auction prices of various timber species in the state during his tenure as DFO (Production), Hisar in year 2011-12, these records are still intact.

After joining in AIIMS as CVO, he exposed several scams in the medical institute.

In his two years tenures as CVO of the institute, the officer initiated action in a number of cases, penalties were imposed in 78 cases (out of which in 21 cases, the penalties of compulsory retirement/removal from the service was imposed) and in 87 cases chargesheets were issued. This out of all the cases, the action was taken on 165; the charges included not only that of corruption but also related to unauthorised absence, sexual harassment, sub-letting, fake caste certificates and others.  The number of employees placed under suspension during this period was 14.

Action initiated by the officer included a whole range of issues including supply of dubious medicines, role of middlemen or agents in making OPD cards, irregularities in recruitment, use of fake caste certificates, sexual harassment cases, unauthorized foreign visits, enjoying hospitality of private medical colleges by senior faculty members, irregular appointment of consultants, use of fake propriety certificates among several others.

Some of the prominent cases were against high profile officers including Vineet choudhary (1982 batch) and IPS Shailesh yadav (1993
batch) against whom CBI cases were registered for illegalities and multicrore scam.

 In none of the cases, into which actions were initiated by the officer, any official could get any relief from any court of law. In around 15 cases investigation reports were sent to CBI/CVC for registration of criminal cases on various corruption issues regarding engineering works, favoritism in tender and purchases, and in cases of disproportionate assets. On the basis of these reports, CBI has registered three cases so far which are under investigation.

While serving in the capacity of deputy secretary as well as CVO AIIMS, he took several steps to open a new free generic medicine shop and doctors were instructed to prescribe generic medicines only. Apart from this, a new cafeteria was opened for OPD patients on no profit-no loss basis.

His exemplary courage and dedication to the service made him a role model for the beginners into civil services. So he started getting invitation as guest faculty in IPS Academy, Hyderabad; IAS Academy, Mussorrie; IRS Academy, Nagpur and IFS Academy, Dehradun.
Presently, he was in news for getting harassed in the hands of new government at the centre.

However, union health minister JP Nadda wrote four letters from May 2013 to June 2014 for removal of the officer from the post of the CVO, to save his favourite bureaucrat Vineet Chaudhary whose corruption cases were investigated by the officer and who had also worked as health secretary Nadda in Himachal Pradesh in 2002-03 and finally after regime was changed in the centre, the officer was removed from the post of CVO in August 2014.

A request from Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal that Chaturvedi be deputed as his officer on special duty is still pending with the central government.

In May 2015, Principal Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal quashed the orders of Prime Minister led Appointment Committee of Cabinet where they had asked the officer to bring fresh NOC from Haryana and Uttrakhand Governments for his Cadre Change from Haryana to Uttrakhand after the proposal was submitted to ACC, with completion of all the formalities; ACC was given two month time by the CAT to pass the order.