Govt suspends IAS officer Umashankar Chief secretary KS Sripathi’s order was served on the dalit officer at his residence. By the time he saw his suspension order, Umashankar had already been replaced as commissioner of small savings, sources said. The officer had recently obtained a stay on an ongoing vigilance inquiry against him, and has filed a further petition questioning the manual of the state directorate of vigilance and anti-corruption (DVAC).
Even though he has had problems with governments and political masters on issues that arose out of his refusal to play along with some of their decisions, this is the first time that his caste status has been called into question. It was not immediately clear how the doubt arose about the authenticity of his community certificate.
Umashankar, a 1990 batch IAS officer, first ruffled the feathers of authority in 1995, when he, as additional collector of Madurai, unearthed a scam in the construction of cremation sheds in graveyards under the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. In later years, he has sought to introduce transparency in governance and oversaw development of software programmes and technological tools for detecting bogus cards and introducing egovernance in different areas of administration.
After the DMK came to power in May 2006, Umashankar was given the post of managing director of ELCOT (Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu) which, among other activities, oversees the distribution of free colour televisions to the poor, a major election promise of the DMK. He was later appointed the managing director of the government-run Arasu Cable TV Corporation, an entity that was established as a major multi-system operator to break the near-monopoly of a few MSOs, especially the Kalanithi Maran-owned Sumangali Cable Vision. He was later appointed the commissioner of small savings.
Thanks to The times of India dated 22.07.2010.
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