Civil Defence officer 'tweaked' appointment order to claim President, CM medals

The appointment order of a Civil Defence officer was allegedly manipulated to claim the prestigious President’s and Chief Minister’s medals, it has emerged.
 

The allegation is that although Dr PRS Chetan, a senior Civil Defence officer, was appointed in 2009, a fabricated document was prepared to show that he was appointed in 2005. 

The order of appointment (CD/03/DCD/2010-2011) was allegedly fabricated only to claim the medals, since more than eight years of service was required to apply for the President’s medal and five years for the CM’s medal. 

Chetan, who is Chief Warden, Civil Defence, was awarded the President’s Medal in 2013. The matter reached Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi who has issued a direction to the Deputy Commandant for Home Guards and Civil Defences and Director General, Home Guards, to submit a report. 

The complaint was filed by Raghu B V and Arpuda Rajan, who claimed that Chetan had not rendered minimum service of five and eight years respectively in order to secure the CM’s and President’s medals. “During the course of enquiry, original documents were perused pertaining to the appointment. It was found that in the appointment order dated 13/04/2005, the name is mentioned as Dr P R Senthilvel for the post of sector warden at Madiwala division (number 45). 

However, the appointment order copy issued to the complainants under the Right to Information (RTI) bears no number in one copy and another copy states the order as 2010-11. It is not known as to how the number relating to the year 2010-11 is mentioned to the order of appointment of 2005. The original record also has another appointment order dated 01/02/2010 which was subjected to police verification,’’ Justice Adi’s order stated. 

The complainants also alleged that the application form now available in the records was not the type of application form during 2005. 

“In the file produced before me relating to the appointment of sector wardens and divisional wardens between 2007 and 2010, there is no record relating to any other appointment for the year 2005 and 2006, except for the application form and alleged appointment of Chetan. There are no records or explanation as to how only Chetan’s application is maintained and what happened to other appointments,’’ Justice Adi said. It is also mentioned that in 2005, the Bangalore City police commissioner was the appointing authority and not the DGP, Home Guards. 

Besides, there are no records pertaining to activities of Chetan as the sector warden and payment to him. 

“The President’s and the CM’s medals are given in recognition of meritorious service. Any fraud in such issues is intolerable and it will be mockery of such highest awards. The Deputy Commandant has sought time to submit the report after taking the opinion from the DGP, Home Guards. The matter has been posted to November 7,’’ Justice adi said.