Senior officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) are taking every possible step to harass a senior scientist who complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about malpractices taking place in the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC), Hyderabad.
The 54-year-old scientist working in the NFC was harassed by the babus of DAE, who also transferred him to Tarapur, Maharashtra, despite the fact that he has a 28-year-old mentally challenged son. As per a June 2014 Government of India office memorandum, government employees, who have differently-abled dependants, undergoing rehabilitation, cannot be transferred.
The scientist’s son has 100% profound mental retardation, as certified by the National Institute for Mentally Handicapped, Hyderabad, and he has been undergoing treatment at the same institute.
Even after the scientist got a stay order on his transfer from the Supreme Court, the officials of the DEA refused to let him join back and filed an application in the SC challenging the said order.
The scientist had apprised the PM that the NFC was losing money due to decisions taken by his superiors and highly classified documents were being accessed by private individuals who were appointed as consultants at the NFC. Most of these consultants were the kith and kin of senior officials who are already working in the NFC. Two CVC inquiries (12671/2015 and 13506/2015) are already pending against the chief executive of Nuclear Fuel Complex, N. Sai Baba, who has been allegedly harassing the scientist (Shishir Kumar).
The scientist’s bosses transferred him to Tarapur in October 2015. Following this, the scientist first went to CAT, then to the High Court, and finally to the Supreme Court to challenge this arbitrary transfer order.
“He spent nearly Rs 6 lakh in the court cases, so that his son could continue to get treatment at the National Institute for Mentally Handicapped in Hyderabad. The Supreme Court first stayed his transfer order and directed the DEA to make sure that he was allowed to join back in Hyderabad but the obstinate DEA officials, against whom Kumar had whistle blown, did not allow him to join, and then spent so much of government money and successfully filed an application against the said Supreme Court order, which has now quashed its earlier stay order on his transfer,” an official close to the scientist said.
Kumar’s wife had also approached the office of the Chief Commissioner for Person with disabilities, who had ordered that Kumar’s transfer should be revoked considering the condition of his son.
Kumar argued in his plea in the Supreme Court that there was no specialised institute in Tarapur which can treat his son and that he being the only male member of his family, needs to be near his son to take care of him.
Emails sent to Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office and to the head of the NFC, Hyderabad, elicited no response till the time the story went to press.