At least three Union Ministers of State, in charge of the Revenue Department, “abused their position and power in matters of postings and transfers” for “monetary considerations.” This startling allegation is made by Anup K Pande, former Chief of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, in a book to be released tomorrow.

In the book, Grit That Defied Odds (Reflections of a Revenue Officer (Konark Publishers), Pande doesn’t name these Ministers but writes. “One of them served in the early eighties. The other two Ministers of State served in the late nineties. An effective tool of administration and preventive vigilance was thus converted by them into a money-making device.”

The message, Pande claims, which was on many occasions “conveyed” by the Ministers through their personal staff —- by way of justification — was that such postings or transfers were being pressed by them to either discharge their duty as a “representative of the people” or as an “obligation” to their constituency or party. “On other occasions it was conveyed that the money demanded and collected was meant for party funds.”

Many senior bureaucrats also played along, Pande alleges. “Senior bureaucrats, including some at the highest levels, had no qualms...so long as it helped them to secure their position or get a particular post or some post- retirement assignment or even a couple of months extension. They are as guilty of destroying the system as the politicians.”

Pande retired six years ago as Special Secretary in the Economic Intelligence Bureau. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said that his impression is that “ground realities, manipulations and corruption in the Revenue Department are no different today” from what he has described in his book.

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