Khemka rebutts agriculture dept's claim

HSDC had issued a press release on November 22 saying that it had incurred a net loss during his tenure as its managing director

IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Friday hit out at the Haryana agriculture department over its claim that the state seeds corporation had incurred a loss under him, saying it was an attempt to "disparage" his efforts to remove corruption and bring "professionalism and transparency" in the interests of farmers.

In a letter to Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery, Khemka said "the insinuations against me in the government's press release on November 22 were totally unwarranted." He claimed he was "abruptly" transferred out within a day of a "motivated complaint" from a senior IAS officer "who prima facie has a lot to hide."

Authorities in the agriculture department and Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) had issued a press release on November 22 saying that HSDC had incurred a net loss during his tenure as its managing director.

Khemka was the managing director of HSDC from October 15, 2012, to April 4, 2013. Seeking a statement of profit and loss of HSDC during the period, he said it would help him submit a "true and correct" self-appraisal for the performance-appraisal report.

"The press release was an attempt to disparage my sincere efforts to remove corruption and to re-structure the corporation to bring in professionalism and transparency in its working in the interests of farmers," he said.

The press release had said "the profit got reduced to Rs 175.96 lakh during the tenure of Ashok Khemka". HSDC suffered a net loss of Rs 56 lakh on account of interest for only three months (January to March 2013) on huge unsold quantity of 87,000 quintals of certified wheat seed worth Rs 22 crore.

Khemka had on November 22 contested the state's claim, saying he had "consciously stopped cheating" other agencies. The IAS officer was posted as the managing director of HSDC after he, as special collector of land acquisition, had cancelled the mutation of the land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF.