Charges of corruption levelled against new Chief Information Commissioner Ranjeet Singh Pankaj while he was the district magistrate in Gorakhpur in 2008 were corroborated by the divisional commissioner, P K Mohanty, who conducted an inquiry into the selection process of 3,448 safai karamcharis.

The probe report, acting on which the government cancelled all the appointments, held Pankaj responsible for violating norms and handpicking men of his choice who later committed irregularities, including accepting bribes.

When, as per the norms, heads of six panels constituted to screen the candidates should have been the officers of SDM and BDO rank, Pankaj appointed the Basic Shiksha Adhikari, the District Handicapped Welfare Officer and the District Programme Implementation Officer to head the selection committees.

These panel heads were charged with, among other things, accepting bribes between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh. Other charges against the panels included clearing the appointment of candidates who provided fudged documents, appointing as many as four members from the same family, appointing ineligible candidates (those who cannot be employed as safai karamcharis as they were already engaged in other occupations) including those from higher castes. Some who were even physically unfit for the job were selected the probe report reportedly said.

Also, the DM’s role came under suspicion when despite the commissioner’s orders for stopping the recruitment process on September 10, 2008, he went ahead to declare the list of candidates on September 12, 2008.

These “tainted” candidates, allegedly at the behest of the panel heads, later staged a protest against the commissioner who annulled their appointments.

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