NEW DELHI: Throwing their weight behind Joint Secretary G K Dwivedi who was suspended over the renewal of the FCRA licence of Zakir Naik's NGO, four senior IAS officers have conveyed to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi that action against him for the alleged lapses by his juniors is “demoralising and harsh on an honest officer”.
“It is demoralising for honest officers. I feel injustice has been done to Mr Dwivedi. We have conveyed our feelings,” Joint Secretary (Police-I) Kumar Alok told reporters after meeting Mehrishi.
The officers, all joint secretaries in the Ministry of Home Affairs, have told Mehrishi that “the suspension was a gross miscarriage of justice” towards an officer “who has been diligently doing his job and has successfully implemented several ambitious projects of the government”.
Dwivedi, who is serving as Joint Secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry, was suspended along with three of his junior officers last week after the government found that the Foreign Contribution Regulations Act licence of the Islamic Research Foundation run by Naik was renewed at a time when several investigations were underway into the activities of the controversial televangelist.
He has been credited with successfully implementing schemes such as the e-tourist visa programme, merger of Person of Indian Origin cards with Overseas Citizen of India cards and completely overhauling the FCRA registration process for NGOs.