Both Sarma and Krishna Rao had voiced concern over the alleged harassment of Bhanwar Lal, “an honest officer who impartially discharged his duties as the election officer” by the TDP government, which had framed charges against for misuse of his official position and default of arrears to the government and resorting to misconduct etc.
The two senior retired bureaucrats had expressed doubts that Bhanwar Lal had been targeted because of his upright behaviour in conducting several elections, especially the recent Nandyal Assembly by-poll on 23 August. The EC officials had recovered huge amounts of money from the cars and vans of some ruling party leaders, including a vehicle allegedly belonged to Municipal Minister P. Narayana.
Bhanwar Lal, a 1983 batch IAS officer of AP cadre retired as CEO on 31 October on superannuation after serving the post for over seven years. Hours after Bhanwar Lal retired, on Tuesday afternoon, Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Dinesh Kuamr issued a GO (government order) No. 2441 charging that the retiring IAS officer had violated Clause 3 (1) of All India Services (Conduct) Rules 1968 Act by defaulting on payment of arrears to the government since 2007.
The charges are related to a case dating back to his tenure in 2000-01. Bhanwar Lal was the district collector of Hyderabad from 1 November 1996 to May 2000. As the collector, he was allotted a big bungalow No 33, on Road No 13, Banjara Hills in the city. He didn’t vacate his house even after being transferred to a public sector undertaking where he is not entitled to that bungalow.
The Estate Officer of the General Administration Department (GAD) had forcefully evicted the officer from the building on 3 May 2006 and issued a notice asking him to pay the rent along with penalty for the unauthorised period of 70 months, a total estimated at Rs 17.50 lakh. Later, on a petition filed by Bhanwar Lal, the GAD in May 2007 reduced the amount to Rs 4.37 lakh.
The officer did not pay it on the ground that he had not done any wrong by keeping that bungalow as he was not provided with any alternative after bieng transferred from Hyderabad collector’s post. At a time when the issue was believed to be sorted out amicably, the GAD of Andhra Pradesh suddenly revoked it and framed charges against Bhanwar Lal on the same day he demitted office. In the GO issued by the Chief Secretary of AP, Bhanwar Lal was asked to reply to the charges against him within 15 days and be ready to appear before a panel to be constituted by the government in the case. Sources said Bhanwar Lal would reply to the charges. When contacted on Friday, Bhanwar Lal refused to comment on the case at the moment. On 1 November, former AP Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao wrote a letter to CEC Joti seeking his intervention to stop the “harassment” of Bhanwar Lal by the TDP government.
Krishna Rao told the EC that Bhanwar Lal was denied his promotion as special chief secretary in 2007 by the then Congress government due to his “unbending” attitude. “After repeated interventions and efforts, he, however, was made special CS in 2016. Krishna Rao also said that he as CS had tried to close the case of Bhanwar Lal’s rent arrears but the government came in the way to take revenge after his retirement.” Sarma wrote another letter to Joti on Thursday seeking his intervention to protect interests of Bhanwar Lal from AP government. Sarma has drawn the attention of Joti to a precedent when the EC came to the rescue of an official who worked as CEO of Bihar from the harassment of the state government some years ago.