Bosses turning into devils in Chhattisgarh

The increasing number of honest officers committing suicides has added to the woes of BJP-led government in Chhattisgarh. Three high level officers have committed suicide in the state in last six months. While opposition Congress has been leveling allegations about bureaucratic terrorism in the state for long, some BJP leaders have also joined the fore against arbitrariness and corruption in the bureaucracy. Six BJP MPs including Dilip Singh Judev and Ramesh Bais have openly alleged corruption in the bureaucracy. And going overboard BJP MLA Jageshwar Ram sat on a six day fast on the issue. Despite all these efforts the government is still unmoved.

It is believed that honest officers are compelled to commit suicide due corruption in administration and pressure on them to indulge in corrupt practices.

Recently, in-charge of water resources, R P Soni committed suicide by setting himself ablaze. He was from Bhopal and was seeking his transfer to his home city, but senior officers did not pay heed to his requests. According to his wife, Soni was fed up with tyranny of senior officers.

In March, an IPS officer Rahul Sharma shot himself with his service revolver in the officers’ mess. While talking to TSI, some of Rahul's close friends said a case of coal smuggling was registered against a business man associated with SECL and Sharma was heading that investigation. There was a huge pressure on Sharma from top level officers and coal mafias to hush up the matter.

Even in his suicide note Sharma wrote that he was committing suicide due to cruelty of senior officers and a judge. Supreme Court has ordered the police to register a case against erring persons without starting the investigation. But the officer who compelled Sharma to commit suicide is being protected. Meanwhile, CBI is investigating the case.

In another such case, another official of water resources department in Abhanpur, Kishor Sharma hanged himself in his house in late July. In his suicide note he blamed the atrocities meted out to him by the seniors behind his extreme step. He was transferred only a few days ago. When he went to the project site of Kada, he noticed huge corruption involving crores of rupees. Fearing of being implicated in the future, he informed his senior officers about it, but was asked to keep mum.

In the backdrop of these cases, there is a big question mark on the way the Chhattisgarh government is ruling the state. If we go by a report of National Crime Records Bureau submitted a few days ago, 12405 people have committed suicide this year. Although several reasons have emerged behind the suicides but bureaucratic terrorism and corruption is no less responsible for this. According to the leader of Opposition Raveendra Chaube senior officers neither listen to the representatives of people nor take them seriously. The government should take some concrete step to get rid of this problem.