Puja Khedkar, a probationary IAS officer who is under scrutiny over alleged misuse of power and privileges, has been recalled to the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie and her training put on hold. This is the first major action against Ms Khedkar who had been transferred to Washim from Pune (where she was originally posted) amid allegations of manipulation of disability and OBC certificates for getting into the civil services. She has been recalled to the training academy for “further necessary action”. 

“You are hereby relieved from the District Training Programme of the State Government of Maharashtra,” said the release from the General Administration Department. She has been instructed to “join the academy at the earliest” but not later than July 23. 

The academy trains civil servants of the IAS cadre and also conducts the foundation course of Group-A central civil services.

The authenticity of various certificates submitted by her to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), one of them indicating visual impairment, is being probed.

Ms Khedkar had earlier submitted two certificates, provided by the Ahmednagar District Civil Hospital in 2018 and 2021, to the UPSC under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PwBD) category. She was, however, sent by the UPSC for a medical check-up at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Science. She, however, skipped as many as six appointments between April and August 2022, claimed several reports.

It has now emerged that she applied for a disability certificate from the Aundh government hospital in Pune in August 2022, but after medical tests, her application was rejected.

The 2023-batch officer from Ahmednagar has alleged a “media trial” against her and that she had been the victim of a misinformation campaign.

She was transferred from Pune, where she was posted as an assistant collector, to Washim as a supernumerary assistant collector after she was first accused of demanding perks and facilities to which she was not entitled as a trainee official.

It was alleged she was found using a red beacon and a “Government of Maharashtra” sticker on her private Audi car. She also used Pune Additional Collector Ajay More’s office while he was away. She reportedly removed office furniture, besides demanding letterheads and a VIP number plate. She also raised demands for a separate house and car – perks that are unavailable for junior officers on probation for 24 months.

Last week, the Union government set up a one-member committee “to verify the candidature” of Ms Khedkar and submit a report in two weeks.

Questions were raised about Ms Khedkar’s appointment in the civil services under the OBC non-creamy layer after a Pune RTI activist Vijay Kumbhar alleged that her father had assets worth Rs 40 crore. A person with a family income over Rs 8 lakh per annum is from the ‘creamy layer’ and is not eligible for reservation benefits. 

Ms Khedkar has said she will testify in front of the expert committee and that she will “accept the decision of the committee”. “Whatever my submission is, I will give it in front of the committee and the truth will come out,” she added.

Pune Police has also been searching for her parents in a criminal case. A First Information Report was registered against the couple and five others after a video showed her mother Manorama Khedkar, a village sarpanch, allegedly threatening some persons with a gun over a land dispute.
 

Home Minister Amit Shah lashed out at the Congress Tuesday, accusing the party of having “snatched reservation from backward classes in Karnataka and giving it to Muslims”.

Mr Shah’s  comment was made in Haryana, which will hold an Assembly election later this year. “If the Congress forms the government, they will do the same in Haryana too…” he said at a Backward Classes Samman Sammelan.

He said the Congress had always been against the backward classes, raking up a row – the issue of reservations to Muslims – that dominated headlines ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

In an all-out and fierce attack on his rival, Mr Shah referred to the 1957 Kaka Kalelkar Commission report and pointed out the Congress had delayed implementing its recommendations. “In 1980, Indira Gandhi shelved the Mandal Commission. When it was introduced in 1990, Rajiv Gandhi opposed OBC reservation…”

Mr Shah declared that it was only in 2014, after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the first time that there was a “government of Dalits, poor, and backward people”.

He made reference to the fact 27 of 71 cabinet ministers are from backward classes. “I want to assure you we will not allow Muslim reservation in Haryana,” he declared.

That the comment came in Haryana is seen as significant, since Nayab Singh Saini, who replaced ML Khattar as Chief Minister ahead of the general election, is from the OBCs.

And last month Mr Saini said reservation for backward classes in Group-A and Group-B government jobs, currently at 15 per cent, would be increased to 27 per cent.

This, he said, would be “in line with the central government’s policy”.

The Congress has hit back strongly, directing Mr Shah to Andhra Pradesh, where the Telugu Desam Party of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is in power. The TDP is an ally of the BJP; its 16 Lok Sabha MPs are essential for Mr Modi to remain in power after the BJP’s less than stellar poll result, in which it finished 32 seats of outright majority.

The reference was to the TDP government’s reservation policy for Muslims, who form a crucial vote bank in the state. Mr Naidu has offered no indication he will scrap this.

In fact, his son Nara Lokesh told NDTV last month, “It (reservation for Muslims) has been going around for the last two decades. We stand by it. We intend to continue it.”

“It’s a fact minorities continue to suffer and that they have the lowest per capita income. As a government, it is our responsibility to bring them out of poverty. So whatever decisions I take are not for appeasement, but to bring them out of poverty.”

During the election campaign the Muslim reservation issue was a major bone of contention, particularly after Mr Modi’s comment in Rajasthan’s Banswara.

Referring to plans in the Congress’ manifesto for an “economic and institutional report” as part of a national caste survey, and to a remark by his predecessor, Dr Manmohan Singh, the PM said, “Congress says they will calculate gold with mothers and sisters… and distribute that property…. that Muslims have first right on all resources…”

The remarks provoked an angry response from the Congress, which accused Mr Modi of lying to divert voters’ attention from genuine issues. The party pointed out its manifesto made no such claim, and Mr Gandhi explained the survey and its components were an “important step” in understanding how sections of the society developed and what is needed to ensure equality.

The party also complained to the Election Commission. A notice was sent to BJP chief JP Nadda – and his Congress counterpart Mallikarjun Kharge, after a complaint was filed against Mr Gandhi.

Amit Shah is on his second visit to poll-bound Haryana.

The state was won by the BJP and its then ally, former ex-Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s JJP in the last election. It was swept by the BJP in the two previous Lok Sabha election; the party won all 10 seats. But in the 2024 poll the Congress made a strong comeback, winning five seats.