Excise Commissioner to face suspension?

Bengaluru: Is the coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy following the footsteps of his predecessor, Siddaramaiah, who had punished many honest and good officers and protected the under-performers and corrupt?

Using the government order as a ploy, Mr Kumaraswamy has reportedly asked Chief Secretary K. Rathna Prabha to keep Excise Commmissioner Munish Moudgil under suspension, if he failed to send back excise inspectors to the positions they had held before the elections.

Recently, the government issued an order asking all the department secretaries to revert back the transfers made during the elections.

On Friday, on the advice of chief secretary, Mr Kumaraswamy has asked the Chief Secretary provide two days time to Moudgil to implement his order or face action.

State government sources told Deccan Chronicle that during elections, on the recommendation of Election Commission of India, Moudgil, who was posted as excise commissioner, tried to break the nexus between department officials and liquor shop mafia.

He had transferred officials who were posted in the same place for over 20 years. "Majority of them were in and around Bengaluru for 10-20 years. After the government issued an order asking the departments to send back the officials to their original posts, Moudgil refused. While issuing the order, the government said the head of the departments should take a final call on this matter. So, Moudgil on seeing the nefarious activities of these lower rung officials, decided not to revert back their positions. The upset inspectors first approached the chief secretary and then met the chief minister," sources said.

When contacted, Moudgil confirmed that the inspectors had approached his higher ups on the transfer issue. "I cannot disclose anything more now. I will go by the law," he said.

But senior IAS officers, who are privy to these developments, said if Moudgil was suspended or made to bring back the lower rung officials to their previous positions, it would send a wrong signal to honest officials. "Hope the new government will open a new chapter at least on this front," a senior officer said.