Ed Chief Shifted To Delhi Govt

In a controversial move, Enforcement Directorate director M K Bezboruah was yesterday appointed Delhi's Commissioner of Transport.

The appointment has raised eyebrows since Bezboruah's five-year term as director has been slashed to less than three years. He had been appointed to the post in 1995 for a period of five years. Bezboruah, who belongs to the 1968 Union Territory cadre of the Indian Administrative Service, will hold the rank of principal secretary in his new position.

His transfer reportedly follows a request by Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma to Union home minister L K Advani to appoint a competent officer to deal with the many hurdles in the path of the state transport department and the implementation of the ambitious metro rail project. However, the transfer has acquired controversial overtones since he was in charge of investigating many sensitive cases involving alleged Foreign Exchange Regulation Act violations. The cases include those involving ITC Ltd, Shaw Wallace, Ashok Jain_promoter of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd_ and controversial godman Chandraswami, among others. Besides, questions are being raised about why Verma's request was not publicised before the transfer and is being offered only now as a reason.