MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Oct 12: The central ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions on Wednesday issued a notification promoting 40 Jharkhand civil service members to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) including corruption accused Gopalji Tiwari.
“… the President is pleased to appoint the following members of the state civil service of Jharkhand to the IAS against the vacancies determined by the GoI … in consultation with the state government for the select lists of 2019, 2020 and 2021,” the notification said.
Tiwari, born in 1966, has been promoted to the position of IAS against the 14 vacancies that arose in the calendar year 2020. For vacancies that arose in 2019, 16 officers were selected, and 10 officers were promoted to the IAS cadre for the year 2021.
Gopalji Tiwari, the former OSD of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, is facing allegations of corruption and the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had lodged a preliminary enquiry (PE) in 2020 against him for allegedly accumulating disproportionate assets.
It may be noted that the state government had recommended the names of 120 officials of the state civil service, three times the number of vacant posts including that of Tiwari, to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for their promotion to the IAS cadre.
Sources inform that in case any official is facing any departmental or criminal enquiry, the same is mentioned in the list against his name. The ACB is understood to have concluded that there was enough material evidence to start a criminal proceeding.
Tiwari was holding the post of joint secretary in the road construction department when Soren appointed him as OSD after assuming charge as CM. On receiving complaints regarding disproportionate assets, Soren had ordered the ACB to probe the matter.
