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Indian Railways removed one ‘non-performer or corrupt official’ every three days in the last 16 months
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In the last 16 months, the Railways has removed one “non performer or corrupt official” every three days. Meanwhile, 139 officers were forced to take voluntary retirement while 38 were removed from service. The move is a part of the Centre’s efforts to weed out non performers.
“The (Railways) minister (Ashwini Vaishnaw) is very clear about his missive of ‘performance or perish’. Every three days, we have weeded out one corrupt official from the Railways since July 2021,” an official said. Vaishnaw took office as Railways Minister in July 2021 and has repeatedly warned officials “to take VRS and sit at home” if they did not perform.
According to sources, two senior-grade officers were sacked on Wednesday. “One of them was caught by the CBI with a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in Hyderabad while the other was caught with Rs 3 lakh in Ranchi,” they told PTI.
Those forced to take voluntary retirement or sacked include officials from the electrical and signalling, medical and civil services and personnel from stores, traffic and mechanical departments.
Under the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), an employee is paid a salary equivalent to two months’ pay for every year of service left. But similar benefits are not available in compulsory retirement.
Rule 56(J) of the Department of Personnel and Training service rules was invoked by the Railways that says — a government employee can be forced to retire or be dismissed after being served a minimum of three months’ notice or pay for a similar period.
Under the provisions relating to premature retirement in the Fundamental Rules and the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, the appropriate authority has the absolute right to retire a government servant under FR 56(j), FR 56(l) or Rule 48 (1)(b) of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, as the case may be, if it is necessary to do so in public interest.
(With inputs from PTI)
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