New Delhi: Communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has approved the forced retirement of 10 senior officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for alleged non-performance and corruption-related instances.
Another 50 officers are under the scanner for similar action, if found guilty, government officials in the know said.
The sacked officials were posted at DoT’s offices at several places, they said.
Of the officials who have been forced to retire, nine are working under the the junior administrative grade (JAG) and one was a senior administrative grade (SAG) officer,” an official privy to the details told ET.
Officers with experience of less than 16 years come under JAG, while those in the senior grade have a longer experience. The SAG level is equivalent to joint secretary in government departments, while JAG is at the director level.
The officials said this was the first time that officers in DoT had been given forced retirement under Section 56 (J) of the Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972.Under this section, the government has the right to retire its officials prematurely on the ground of lack of integrity and ineffectiveness, in public public interest.
The action comes in the wake of Vaishnaw’s mandate to perform or perish. The minister is working on streamlining and simplifying various processes in a time-bound manner. “Performance of all the officers is being tracked, with zero tolerance for corruption,” said an official.
Prior to the latest action, some officials of state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam were forced to retire for alleged non-performance. In September, one senior BSNL official, who was caught napping literally in Vaishnaw's meeting after the Cabinet cleared a Rs 1.64 lakh-crore package for the public sector enterprise, was given voluntary retirement from service.
Vaishnaw, who also holds the charge as railways and IT minister, had cleared the forced retirements for about 40 officials in the railways department for alleged non-performance and doubtful integrity. They included a secretary-level officers.
As per a DoT official, the minister has clearly told all staff that they must work in a transparent and time-bound manner.
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