Non-performance will no longer be
tolerated: To drive home this Good Governance message of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi, the Centre has ordered 33 senior officials of the revenue
department to take premature retirement.
Over the last two years, 72
officials have also been dismissed following departmental and disciplinary
action. But this was the first time that action was taken against such a large
group. All 105 officers were Class 1 officers and are above 50 years in age.
Action against the revenue
officials was part of several measures to change the officials’ perception that
poor performance or harassing the public would not impact their job, said a
senior personnel ministry official.
PM Modi had been regularly
receiving complaints from various departments about officials who were either
indifferent or harassed the public.
In January, PM Modi had asked
all departmental secretaries to take stern action against non-performing
officials during a meeting called “pragati interaction”. Secretaries were asked
to draw up a list of officials who were non-performing as a rule.
Later that month, the Centre
had shortlisted 122 deputy secretary level officials in various ministries and
departments. Of them, 17 were from the Defence ministry, 13 from higher
education, 7 from the health ministry and 6 from commerce ministry. Even
officials from critical units, like National Intelligence Grid and the National
Scrutiny Council were on the list.
To scrutinise their records,
the Department of Personnel and Training had written to the administrative
officials of 34 departments seeking inputs.
The government said they are
working on an exercise to rotate officers working in sensitive posts to improve
efficiency.
Source: NDTV
