Vadra case: Haryana drops charges against Khemka

CHANDIGARH: Almost eight months after the Haryana government dropped the chargesheet against whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka in the Robert Vadra land deal, Haryana's BJP government has issued a fresh chargesheet against him.He has been held responsible for what many see as a minor issue of "causing avoidable loss on account of unsold stocks of 87,000 quintal wheat seeds".The case is at least three years old.The new chargesheet has taken many by surprise given that the previous state Congress government had proposed that Khemka be held responsible for the unsold stock, but it has been served to him only now.The latest case pertains to the period when Khemka was MD of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) during 2012-13.The charge sheet alleges Khemka "did not take much interest" in liquidating the stock of certified wheat seed, which resulted in about 87,000 quintals valued at Rs 22.21 crore, remaining unsold. This, the government has alleged, caused an avoidable financial loss of Rs 3.41 crore to HSDC.Khemka has been charge-sheeted for a minor penalty under Rule 10 of the All India Services (Appeals and Discipline) Rules. He has been terming the "loss" as a "Goebbelsian" truth falsely propagated by a retired IAS officer and his company to defame him as "the officer wanted him out of HSDC after he (Khemka) exposed many scams there"."The excessive supplies and lower demand for wheat seeds in Rabi-2012 were due to the existence of an estimated 9.2 lakh quintals of wheat seeds produced in-situ under the seed village scheme in Rabi-2011 and the complete ban imposed on sale of private wheat seeds outside the state for extraneous considerations. The low demand and excessive supplies resulted in lower prices in Rabi-2012 due to which some wheat seed stocks remained unsold," Khemka had stated in a 2014 letter to the government.