Centre sacks whistle blower IFS officer Kallol Biswas

Centre on Friday sacked a whistle blower Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Kallol Biswas of Andhra Pradesh cadre. Biswas a 1991 batch officer served notices to the controversial Obulapuram Mines Company (OMC) owned by Gali Janardhana Reddy, while he was Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in Anantapur.

Sources say that compulsory retirement orders were issued based on a report filed by former Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar. A committee headed by Kumar looked into the service record of the officer and allegedly found certain violations in dealing with the Obulapuram mines issue. Biswas considered as an upright officer was then transferred and posted as Joint Secretary of Higher Education Department.

Known for his innovative development work in the Narsipatnam agency area, Kallol Biswas while working in Anantapur district served notices to Gali Janardhana Reddy, a prominent BJP leader in Karnataka. The mining activity of the OMC allegedly crossed its permitted boundaries in both the states attracting the review of the district forest department headed by Biswas.

Biswas’s bold step exposed the alleged nexus between the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the mining baron of Bellary. The close ties of Gali with YSR even got him permission to build Brahmani Steel Plant at Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district with permission to mine iron ore from the mines leased to Gail. The Brahmani Company raised huge loans without even starting the construction work of the project. In 2015 the project was scrapped and an investigation was taken up by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

After Biswas served notices to OMC suspending the mining licenses he went underground following life-threatening calls. Colleagues of Biswas who could not be reached over phone say that he even absconded from without permission fearing attacks by disgruntled elements. Few Telugu newspapers at that time quoting Biswas wrote that a lot of unsavoury things happening around the Obulapuram mines and also mentioned about the reports he submitted to the centre about the nexus between YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Janardhana Reddy.

Ironically the centre’s move against Biswas came after YSR’s son YS Jaganmohan Reddy become the Chief Minister of the state.