Sack civil servants with doubtful integrity, says Centre

The Narendra Modi-led government could soon get down to chopping off the bureaucratic deadwood. It instructed all departments on Monday to identify civil servants of doubtful integrity in the 50-55 age bracket who should be booted out to raise the probity bar in governance.

The Narendra Modi-led government could soon get down to chopping off the bureaucratic deadwood. It instructed all departments on Monday to identify civil servants of doubtful integrity in the 50-55 age bracket who should be booted out to raise the probity bar in governance.

The departments have been told to invoke Fundamental Rule (56 J) that empowers the government to compulsorily retire employees after they put in 30 years of service, if they are suspected to be corrupt or ineffective.

The directive from the department of personnel & training (DoPT) follows cabinet secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha’s meeting last month.

Apart from the review at the end of 30 years of service, Sinha had told department heads to ensure that officials holding sensitive posts did not hold the same position beyond 2-3 years.

The government intends to achieve this by making it mandatory for departments to report action taken on this front to Sinha on a monthly basis.

This, however, isn’t the first effort to keep the civil servants on their toes. In 2012, the Manmohan Singh government had made a similar attempt to review the performance of all Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police and Indian Forest Service officers who have completed 15 years of service. But most states have not carried out the reviews mandated under the 2012 rule.