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900 govt employees sacked for graft last year
NEW DELHI: Around 900 government and public-sector firm employees were sacked and 19,000 handed out other punishments in 2015 for corruption and misconduct. The
NEW DELHI: Around 900 government and public-sector firm employees were sacked and 19,000 handed out other punishments in 2015 for corruption and misconduct. The penalties ranged from dismissal and pay-cuts to a simple warning.
An Indian Police Service officer was one of the 900 officials sacked, said the Central Vigilance Commission’s annual report tabled in Parliament recently. An income tax commissioner was ordered to take a temporary pay-cut while a former chief town planner of the municipal corporation of Delhi saw his pension being reduced.
It was not the usual suspects — police or income tax officers — who often ended up on the vigilance commission’s wrong side. The dubious distinction goes to bank and railway officials.
Nearly 560 bank officials were dismissed, accounting for 60% of the 928 officials sacked last year. The railways, which removed 88 officials from service, came next.
But it topped the list of government organisations whose officials were most penalised by the vigilance establishment. Over 5,500 railway officials were awarded one penalty or the other.
The increase in penalties was the result of the anti-corruption watchdog’s efforts to conclude cases within a time-frame, a government official said.
Corruption was one of the main issues raised by the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. PM Narendra Modi, too, has pledged stern actions against corrupt officials.
The 20,000 cases include 3,500 senior officers penalised on the recommendations of the central vigilance commission for lack of integrity. A quick comparison shows that the number of senior officers penalised in 2015 was the highest in a decade. In 2014, just 2,144 bureaucrats got into trouble.
Over 17,000 employees were acted against on being found guilty by chief vigilance officers, Parliament was told. These included managers of state-run firms and public sector banks, scientists and at least one Kendriya Vidyalaya school principal.
