The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government on Monday identified as many as 250 officials, engineers and other employees of the Public Works Department (PWD) to be forcibly retired under the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The move of taking action against these engineers of the PWD department is reportedly aimed at streamlining the bureaucracy and end corruption. “The action is in keeping with the Yogi Adityanath government maintaining it will have a zero tolerance policy towards corruption,” a senior official told news agency IANS.
Among those in the list of PWD employees identified for VRS include junior engineers, executive engineers and assistant engineers. It is also being said that the final list will soon be made public. Commenting upon the same, officials close to the development said that probe against the errant officials has been completed by the department and the file is with the office of the Chief Minister.
At least 392 PWD engineers have been screened of whom charges against three have been established and they have been forcibly retired already, the official said further. A total of 351 assistant engineers have also been shortlisted out of which 78 have been charged and all have been retired. Of the 151 other engineers, 116 have been sacked under the VRS.
Earlier this month, the state government had claimed that under Adityanath’s regime, road construction in UP has gone up to 25 kilometers per day with a target to increase it to 35 kms per day from the 2018-19 financial year. “Besides making roads pothole-free, the government has taken measures to ensure the quality of roads. The government will also conduct third party inspection of road constructions for punitive action against officers and contractors who fail to comply with quality standards,” Deputy CM and Public Works department minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had told PTI earlier.