On Wednesday, in a late evening development, the state government transferred Ashok Khemka to the post of secretary and director general of the state archaeology and museums department. IAS officer Ashok Khemka had been on a very low profile, post just four months ago. He was designated as the state transport commissioner. This was his 46th transfer in 22 years of service as an IAS officer.
Just last week, while welcoming the CAG report on the land deals involving Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Khemka conveyed his sadness through a tweet that said that he continued to face the ‘stigma of chargesheet’.
The government did not mention any reason for his transfer. His name was included in the list of nine IAS officers who were transferred on Wednesday.
When he worked in the transport department, Khemka denied any fitness certificates to over-sized trucks and trailers for carrying automobiles. This led to a truckers strike in January. Two days after when around 60,000 trucks and trailers went off the roads, the government gave them a year’s time to follow rules for vehicle fitness and the transporters called off the strike.
The Hooda government too gave him low profile posts after he cancelled the land deal between Robert Vadra and DLF in 2012. He was initially sent to the Haryana Seed Development Corporation but was then transferred to the archives department after he exposed lumps in the corporation.
During the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in 2014, BJP raised the issue of Vadra-DLF land deal and supposed victimization of honest officers during the Congress reign.
Ashok Khemka has denied any comments on the situation.
