Friends,

I went thru a slightly old India Today Article (dated March 12, 2007)
titled "Indian Part-time Service" by Sri Sanjay Kumar Jha which began
with the following- "Shunted postings are prompting IPS officers to
channelise their energy and expertise in the areas of their interest.
Some are writing books, some are engaged in NGO activities, while
others have turned playback singers."
The Article mentions the name of 5 IPS officers of Bihar Cadre viz.,
Sri Manoje Nath, Arvind Pandey, Gupteshwar Pandey, Abhayanand and Ajay
Kumar Verma.
In the beginning I would like to state that the word "shunted" did
amuse me. We so often use this word for describing officers who are
placed in positions of so-called less socio-political relevance, where
their role and contribution to the mainstream gets naturally
diminished. But why the word "shunted". As per the Oxford dictionary
and Thesaurus, shunt (as a verb) means to diverge or cause (a train)
to be diverted to another track and as a Noun means the act or an
instance of shunting on to a siding.
Thus each one of these officers are like those trains who have been
moved or diverted to some other track from the regular one on which
they were supposed to be kept. At least this is what would emerge from
the dictionary meaning of the word.
Of these 5 IPS officers, I would specially mention Sri Ajay Kumar
Verma who has been facing so-called hardships for years because of his
iconoclastic views and non-conforming nature.
Of the various facts that I came to know about this 1985 batch IPS
officer are-
1. Mr Verma is considered to be an upright officer and thus has to
undergo the jitters of being posted at a `low profile' place.
2. As SP (Vigilance) he made it to the headlines when he unearthed a
scam regarding the appointment of lecturers.
3. In another case, criminal cognizance was taken against five top IAS
officials on Mr Verma's investigation.
4. Mr Verma was not paid his salary for four years at a stretch,
starting from June 1, 1998 to March 2002 for some such reasons which
he fought successfully in the Court..
5. Mr Verma have demanded for a "Property Declaration Act" to be
introduced. Under the demand they want all officers who are legible to
move on election duty should declare their assets in public, along the
same lines as politicians.
6. Presently Mr Verma is again fighting for a cause. He is ready to
challenge the Bihar police act 2007 saying it "bad in law and not
sustainable, as it is an attempt to overstep the SC order",

Thus here we have a person who has been facing all odds with great
aplomb and has been treading his own path completely away from all
kinds of allurements.
One can very well say that there are very few of his kind.

Amitabh Thakur
SP (Intll),
Faizabad
# 94155-34526