Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to ‘perform or perish’ is no longer restricted to officials at the Centre. The ripple effect can be seen in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, and Uttarakhand. Days after the Centre compulsorily retired 27 officials on the ground of corruption charges, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath followed suit and asked the department to act against corrupt officials in the state. Tripura CM Biplab Deb too made it clear that insincere employees will be forced to retire. Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat is the latest to join this league.
According to PTI, chief minister Rawat has said that the officials who do not do their work will be given compulsory retirement in Uttarakhand. “Complaints about officials being slothful and loathe to work are frequent. We are working on a scheme under which such officials will be given compulsory retirement,” the news agency quoted the chief minister as saying. Rawat has asked the officials to mend their ways or face action.
The government always had the option to remove erring officials on certain grounds but the recent phenomena of sending officials on compulsory retirement started only after the central government acted against certain officials from income tax and excise department.
Earlier this month, Yogi Adityanath removed Maharajganj SDM Satyam Mishra from his post for ‘poor performance’. In a separate development same day, Bareilly DIG Rajesh Kumar Pandey terminated 25 police personnel by issuing mandatory retirement to them.
It was reported that the police personnel would be given three months salary as well as all the post-retirement facilities. It happened just weeks after the chief minister had directed the top officials to remove corrupt employees by giving them voluntary retirement. CM Adityanath has also directed the departments to stop the promotion process of corrupt officials and give them voluntary retirement.