Suspended officer complaints of political harassment| Cathnews India

Suspended officer complaints of political harassment

Published Date: July 30, 2010

Tags: Church in Tamil Nadu, Dalit Christians, Dalit IAS suspended

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minster M. Karunanidhi

A dalit Christian civil servant in Tamil Nadu, suspended for presenting false caste certificate, has complained to a federal panel that he was being harassed for opposing political corruption.

C. Umashankar was suspended last week from his Indian Administrative Service job saying he secured it claiming quota meant for dalits, despite being a Christian. Dalit Christians are denied of such quota on the gorund that Christianity does not follow caste system.

The IAS officer of 1990 batch said he became a Christian only in July 2008, hence his recruitment could not be questioned. He claimed he was suspended because he challenged in Madras High Court a vigilance inquiry the state ordered against him.

Umashankar claims the caste issue was brought up to harass him for his fight against the corruption of the state “chief minster’s family and the Maran brothers.”

He named two brothers–Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi Maran, the grandnephews of Chief Minster M. Karunanidhi–as politicians targeting him, reported Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper.

Umashankar, who once took on the Jayalalithaa regime for graft, has written to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes citing instances that led to his transfers and his suspension recently.

Umashankar, 46, was a favorite with Karunanidhi after exposing the Jayalalithaa government’s scams.

In 2006, when Karunanidhi’s DMK came to power, he was made responsible for procuring television and wireless sets for a state scheme. He once refused Karunanidhi’s third recommendation for a particular deal involving 45,000 wireless sets.

As a result, he was transferred to Arasu Cable TV Corporation in 2009, he claimed. While working in Arasu Cable, a state-owned multiple system operator, Umashankar suggested that the government should seek penal action against Dayanidhi and Kalanidhi Maran as officials from their cable channel, Sumangali Cable Vision, were apparently destroying optical fibres laid by Arasu Cable.

He was shunted out, this time to the department of small savings - “an ex-cadre post”. An ex-cadre post is one that lapses if not regularized within five years.

Source: Telegraph

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