E Governance in Tamil Land Mr C.Umashankar is an unusual IAS officer. The 1990 batch officer from Tamil Nadu wants the governance process to open up unlike so many of his colleagues who are dead against making the decision-making process transparent. While the others are fighting tooth and nail for making the system opaque and have a distinct dislike for Acts like the Right to Information Act, 2005, here is Mr Umashankar who is continuously dabbling with the Act and its different purviews. For this he goes to the extent of helping form and moderate India e-gov group on Yahoo. He does not stop here. The man who is widely recognized in academic circles and is a guest lecturer at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore for the e-governance related issues has the bad habit of making the powers-that-be unhappy. Naturally he has to face the consequences for the same. Though his works in the fields of administration are path-breaking and he has been initiator of concepts like ERP (enterprise resource planning), HRD (human resource development) and OSS (Open Source Software) etc. in his different capacities, but these things hardly matter to the government. To the government, more important is the fact that Mr Umashankar ruffled the feathers the wrong way, particularly as regards such powerful persons like the Marans, the nephews of Mr Karunanidhi, the great-patriarch of the DMK and the Lord of Tamil Nadu. It all started when he unearthed large-scale irregularities worth several hundred crores of rupees while serving as Managing Director (MD) of the state owned Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu(ELCOT) as well as the Arasu Cable TV corporation Limited. Not stoping here, he had recommended penal action against Sumangali Cable Vision(SCV) (Belong to SUN TV Group of the Marans). He had suggested penal action against the Minister for destroying the property of ACTVC worth several crore rupees in 2009. Interestingly, this man does not seem to learn his lessons well despite being a senior bureaucrat. The same thing has happened with him previously when Mr Umashankar faced the ire of the AIADMK government in 1995 when, as Additional Collector in Madurai, he unearthed a scam related to construction of cremation sheds. It became a major embarrassment for the Jayalalithaa government as he exposed the role of the then Local Administration Minister, T M Selvaganapathy, and his immediate boss, the District Collector of Madurai. After AIADMK was voted out in 1996, the same Karunanidhi brought had appointed him as Joint Vigilance Commissioner. This time, the DMK government is not repeating the mistake made by their arch-rivals and it has initiated a Vigilance enquiry against Mr Umashankar so as to teach a lesson once and for ever. He was also subjected to 'illegal disciplinary proceedings' to deny him promotion, which the Central Administrative Tribunal stayed away. But not one to be cowed down or to mend his ways, Mr Umashankar has once again moved the Madras High Court which has stayed the vigilance inquiry against him. In his petition, Mr Umashankar has raised issues about the 'malafide' inquiry. Last month, Mr A K Viswanathan, an Inspector-General of Police, leveled similar allegations against the government in a different context and earned a reprieve from the High Court. This, in sum, is what has happened to Mr Umashankar for a justified and righteous stand. This is how he is being treated for having grown bigger than his boots. And this is the lesson for other bureaucrats to mend their ways and behave properly and remain within their briefs if they do not want to face difficulties in life. Luckily most of the officers seem to have already learned the lesson well. It is only persons like Mr Umashankar who shall remain as odd ones and will naturally be the elements of torture and penalty. Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences (IRDS) appreciates Mr Umashankar for his unique work and stand taken despite all kinds of hardships being faced by him. Dr Nutan Thakur, Secretary, IRDS, Lucknow # 94155-34525
