Even as the obnoxious Puja Khedkar scandal is making headlines across the nation, it is revealed that seven IAS officers of the Gujarat cadre had cleared the examination on disability quota.
The names of the officers serving in Gujarat are Sonal Mishra ( 1997 batch), Sandeep Sangle (2007 batch), Manish Kumar Bansal ( 2013 batch), Ms. Snehal Bhapkar ( 2018 batch ), Amol Awate (2022 batch), Ravi Arora ( 2006 batch) and Jayant Kishore Mankale ( 2020 batch)
Sandip Sangle is Industries Commissioner and Manish Kumar Bansal is the Managing Director of the Gujarat Livelihood Commission. Ms. Snehal Bhapkar is the DDO in Gir-Somnath district and Amol Awat is the Probationary Assistant Collector in Dahod. Ravikumar Arora is working as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Housing, Government of India and Jayant Kishore Mankale is the Probationary Assistant Collector in Sabarkantha-Himatnagar. Ms Sonal Mishra is the senior the most among them, working as the joint secretary in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Central government.
Among the seven officers, Ravi Arora and Jayant Mankale’s disability related to eye vision is the most authenticated. Ravi Arora had even won the case against UPSC regarding his disability. While there is no intention to cast doubt about other officers’ disability claims, not much is in the public domain about the nature and extent of the disabilities.
According to sources, Senior IAS Sonal Mishra has problems related to eye vision, whereas Sandeep Sangle, Manish Kumar, Ms. Snehal Bhapkar and Amol Awate are suffering from locomotive disability.
There had been 3 per cent reservation for candidates with 30 per cent physical disability in the IAS cadre In UPSC which has now been increased to 4% since last four years.
It is not yet known if the Gujarat government has initiated any inquiry into the authenticity of the disability certificates of the bureaucrats in the wake of the Puja Khedkar scandal.
Also Read: Kamala No Match For Trump, As Biden Opts Out From Race
