Martyr’s father exposes Govt irregularities

A decade after conflict, father of a Kargil martyr has transformed himself into an accountability activist through sustained use of the Right to Information Act.

HL Attri, who retired as director from the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2002 has exposed through RTI Act how his fellow colleague in the Ministry was given out of turn increments in a single financial year in contravention of the existing rules.

Another director in the MoEF, Rajendra Mishra was given two increments at one go in 1996 causing a loss of lakhs of rupees to the exchequer.

“Now that the wrongdoings of Rajendra Mishra have been exposed, the Government should either recover the illegal increments given to him or accord similar increments to other officials of the Ministry in the grade of director,” Attri told The Pioneer.

The reply by MoEF to Attri’s RTI application read, “…grant of annual increment to Shri Rajendra Mishra on 1.1.96 appears to be erroneous as no normal increment was due to Shri Mishra as he was stagnating at the maximum of his scale. He was… entitled to stagnation increment on 1.1.96 and his pay ought to have been fixed at Rs 13,875.”

Instead, Mishra’s monthly pay was fixed at Rs 14,250 and accordingly he has been receiving pay scales in contravention of the rules, Attri added.

Attri has in the past exposed how a V-C of the Delhi-based Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University exploited the emergency powers for taking even routine decisions, including appointments bypassing the procedures laid out for administration.

Attri’s son Captain Ayush Attri was killed during an operation in Kargil and was decorated for his bravery by the Government.