The Modi Government implementing it’s zero tolerance for corruption’ policy tightens its noose on corrupt babus. Days after sacking a handful of tainted officers from service the Modi government passes a directive to all departments and ministries to prepare monthly reports identifying officials facing charges of corruption and other wrongdoing against them.
The government, in the latest, has asked all the departments to conduct a periodic review of officials and list the names of officers with questionable credentials in the monthly report to be submitted to the Department of Public Enterprises on the 15th of every month.
As mentioned in the directive passed on to various departments, based on these reports the compulsory retirement provision will be used to get rid of more tainted officials.
As part of this cleanup operation, the government had compulsorily retired another 15 senior I-T officers for corruption on June 18. The sacked officials include the ranks of the principal commissioner, commissioner, additional commissioner, deputy commissioner, joint commissioner and assistant commissioner.
The retirement has been ordered under Rule 56 (j) of the General Financial Rules of Central Government Services.
This came after a week after the government dismissed 12 senior income tax officers including the Chief Commissioner, Principal Commissioners and the Commissioner of Income Tax Department have been ordered to retire early under Rule FR 56 (J) of the Central Civil Services (CCS) on Monday. The order was issued by Finance Ministry.
As per reports, some of these officers are said to be guilty of sexual assaults, illegal and disproportionate assets, and corruption.
The development comes within days after the Cabinet Secretariat and the Central Vigilance Commission had instructed the vigilance heads across departments to speed up the process of identifying officers eligible for compulsory retirement under Fundamental Rule 56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972.
The decision was taken to weed out the corrupt officials sitting atop bureaucratic ranks and non-performing officials over the next few months.
Under 56 (j), the performance of an officer who has turned 50 or 55 or has completed 30 years of service is reviewed to determine if he/she is accountable for compulsory retirement.
Though 56(j) has been in existence for several decades, however, it is the Narendra Modi led government that decided to act upon this rule. The Modi government has been instrumental in forcing various government employees to retire ahead of their tenure of attaining superannuation based on their non-performance or lack of integrity.
This move by the BJP government is expected to improve the administrative efficiency of officials, reduce corruption and open jobs avenues across departments such as railways, armed forces, postal department, and central schools over the next few years.
