AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat government has intensified its crackdown on alleged corruption and administrative irregularities under Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s ‘Operation Gangajal’, compulsorily retiring more senior officials.
The latest action involves H. F. Bhuvatra, Taluka Development Officer (TDO) of Ranpur in Botad district, and M. B. Rao, an official posted in Sihor, Bhavnagar. Both belong to the Panchayat Department. Meanwhile, the investigation involving Rao will continue despite the government’s decision to take action against him.
The move follows a wider crackdown on officials facing allegations of corruption and administrative misconduct. The government has been using compulsory retirement as a disciplinary measure to remove officials following scrutiny of their service records and conduct.
In a separate action, two senior Gujarat Administrative Service (GAS) officers, D. I. Bhaglani, Joint Commissioner at the Gujarat State Tribal Development Residential Educational Institutions Society in Gandhinagar, and J. M. Tuvar, Managing Director of the Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam, were also compulsorily retired. Both officers belong to the senior scale of the state administrative service.
According to reports, approximately 89 Class I and Class II officers from services including IAS, IPS, GAS and GPS have faced action under the campaign. The scale of the exercise signals the government’s intention to tighten administrative discipline and enforce accountability across departments.
The latest developments follow the compulsory retirement of two IAS officers, K. Rajesh and Gaurav Dahiya, on October 2. Both were retired ahead of their scheduled retirement after service reviews, bringing their cases back into focus.
Rajesh, the former Surendranagar Collector, had remained under suspension following his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation in July 2022. The CBI alleged that he accepted bribes during his tenure, including in connection with arms licences for ineligible applicants, government land allocation and the regularisation of encroachments. The allegations also led to investigations involving the Enforcement Directorate into suspected money laundering.
Dahiya, a 2010-batch IAS officer, had faced controversy in 2019 after a woman accused him of fraud and criminal intimidation. The state government constituted an inquiry committee, and he was subsequently suspended. After nearly four years under suspension, he returned to service in July 2023 as Additional Development Commissioner.
However, following a subsequent service review, the government ordered his compulsory retirement, effective October 1, 2026.
With successive actions spanning the IAS, GAS and other state services, Operation Gangajal has emerged as a major administrative exercise. The continuing scrutiny, however, will determine how effectively the campaign translates into sustained accountability across Gujarat’s government machinery.