Mumbai: Coming out against the controversial suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal by Uttar Pradesh government, SEBI chairman UK Sinha on Friday lamented that "collective consciousness" does not get roused by such incidents, and called for a "soul searching".
"It does not arouse our collective consciousness if a young officer is suspended for taking action against a group of people who are organised criminals, (who are) stealing natural resources," Sinha, a career bureaucrat and an IAS officer himself, said here in a speech.
He, though, did not name Durga Shakti Nagpal, the UP cadre IAS officer who was suspended.
"What happens to the same collective consciousness that has impelled people to come on roads and do a night vigil in a cold night? It requires some soul searching that what type of civil servants we want?" he said, without specifically mentioning the public outrage over gang rape in Delhi.
Saying that nobody can defend an "insensitive bureaucracy," Sinha also said that often there is no appreciation of the good work of bureaucrats.
Nagpal was suspended by the Akhilesh Yadav government for allegedly ordering demolition of a religious structure on a public land, but it has been alleged that real reason was her campaign against the powerful sand mining mafia in the Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) district, where she is posted.
Sinha, a Bihar-cadre IAS officer, was delivering the 19th Lalit Doshi memorial lecture here this evening on `Public service: The shifting paradigm`.
Sinha also said that RTI Act and public interest litigations and statutory bodies like the Comptroller & Auditor General -- though pragmatic and democracy-strengthening in themselves -- are adding to the woes of government officials.
"She/he (a civil servant) doesn`t want to take the risk because that is not high priority... Decision-making has taken a beating, there is no premium for decision making...There is no scope for any honest mistake," Sinha said.
PTI
