Scams always leave a trail

Deepak Mohan Spolia, a 1976 batch IAS of AGMUT cadre and former Chief Secretary of Delhi, was hopeful that he would be retained by the newly elected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal did not have any personal grudge against him. But whenever the seat of power changes, bureaucrats, who have remained on the fence, promptly rush to brief the new incumbent. The same happened in Delhi Secretariat when Kejriwal joined; he was briefed about the political environment of the bureaucracy in Delhi Secretariat. There was an inquiry pending against both Chief Secretaries—Spolia and PK Tripathi—in the multi-crore transport scam of outsourcing fitness tests of commercial vehicles. A request was made by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to the Delhi Government’s vigilance department earlier, seeking approval to prosecute several serving government officials, including the then transport commissioner RK Verma. The Shiela Dikshit government was apparently shielding the officers and not sanctioning permission to investigating agencies. The moment Kejriwal was informed about the scam, he decided on a change and brought in Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, a 1980 batch IAS officer of AGMUT cadre. It is to be seen whether Kejriwal will give the go-ahead to the investigative agencies to nab the alleged scamsters or not.