Removed AIIMS CVO demands CVC letters

Sanjeev Chaturvedi, who was removed as the AIIMS chief vigilance officer (CVO), Thursday demanded that the union health ministry immediately make public the letters written by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), where his name was rejected for the post.

In a letter to union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, he said that as per the RTI records available with him, which were provided by the ministry itself, there was absolutely no such letter to show that his name was ever rejected by the CVC.

"However, I request you to kindly direct the concerned officials of the ministry to bring out immediately the letter written by the CVC, where they have specifically rejected my name in year 2012 and 2013 as being claimed in the press communications of the ministry," he wrote.

Chaturvedi, a 2002 batch Indian Forest Service officer of the Haryana cadre, was replaced by Viswas Mehata, a 1986 batch IAS officer of the Kerala cadre as the CVO AIIMS.

Harsh Vardhan had defended Chaturvedi's removal, saying the officer's name was not approved by the CVC, which made him ineligible for the post.

Chaturvedi in his letter said it was to be further noted here, had CVC actually rejected my name, it would have not been displaying my name as CVO AIIMS on its website for past two years and had been repeatedly approving my recommendations and inquiry reports and asking me to conduct inquiries.

"At best, the CVC had raised only certain minor procedural issues, which were adequately dealt and addressed by the then secretary and joint secretary on the file itself, in October, 2012," he said in the letter.