In a clear message to affix accountability among the top bureaucrats in the country, the Modi government has served compulsory retirement to two IPS officers belonging to the Chhattisgarh cadre on charges of inefficiency.
According to the report, this action was taken against AM Juri and KC Agarwal in public interest. Juri currently is the assistant IG (planning and provisioning), while Agarwal is with the police telecommunication department. They were scheduled to retire in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
This action has been taken on the basis of All India Service Rule 16(3) which states that the central government in consultation with the state government can retire an officer in public interest after serving them notice.
Such a performance review of IAS, IPS and IFoS officers takes place when they complete 15 and 25 years of service.
This isn’t the only time the Modi government has taken action against senior government employees who have been accused of inefficiency or those with a doubtful integrity:
- In January it was reported that 2 other IPS officers were also sacked by the Modi government for non-performance. The IPC officers named Raj Kumar Dewangan of Chhattisgarh cadre and Mayank Sheel Chohan of Union Territories cadre were given premature retirement by the Home Ministry after it was found that their services were no longer useful for general administration.
- In May MOS in the PMO’s office Jitendra Singh had stated in a press conference that the government had in the past few months had given early retirement to as many as 129 officers for non-performance based on their review of service records. This action was based on the review of 24,000 Group A and 42,251 Group B officers which the central government had conducted. He also had stated that a similar review was underway of further 34,451 Group A and 42,521 Group B officers.
- A similar cut in workforce was witnessed in December 2015, when it was revealed that the Modi government had so far dismissed 13 officers and imposed pension cut on 45 others for unsatisfactory performance and delivery in public service. The government had then taken the decision to remove the “Deadwood” in order to make the bureaucracy performance oriented and more accountable.
