Whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka on Friday was promoted to the rank of Principal Secretary to the Haryana government.
Khemka is one of the most transferred officers after his cancellation of the land deal between Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF.
Following this, Khemka was transferred repeatedly and as of April 2 earlier this year, the bureaucrat got transferred for the 46th time in his 22 years of service. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had maintained that the transfer of Khemka was done on administrative grounds and added that it was a routine process.
Though Khemka’s major penalty charge sheet was dropped on November 4, 2015, by the BJP government, paving the way for his promotion, it remains conditional due to a pending vigilance probe against him and a pending assessment of one of his performance appraisal reports (PAR).
“The promotion of Ashok Khemka shall be subject to the final assessment of his performance appraisal report for 2012-13 (Oct 15, 2012, to March 31, 2013) as per the provisions of Rule 9 of All India Services (PAR) Rules, after the submission of report by State Vigilance Bureau in inquiry number 9 of September 5, 2013,” the promotion order issued by chief secretary, DS Dhesi, read.
Five other Indian Administrative Service officers of the 1991 batch were also promoted along with Khemka.
(With agencies input)