In a move to cleanse the bureaucracy, the government on Tuesday compulsorily retired 15 senior officials of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) of the rank of principal, additional and Deputy Commissioners.

Those being asked to superannuate compulsorily include Anup Srivastava, Atul Dikshit, Sansar Chand, G Sreeharsha, Ashok R Mahida, Virendra Agarwal,  Amresh Jain, S S Bisht, and Vinod Kr Sanga.

Anup Srivastava was serving as Principal ADG (Audit) in CBIC. In 1996, the CBI had registered a case of criminal conspiracy against him for showing favours to a house building society, which was trying to obtain NOC for land purchases in Delhi.

In 2012, another case was filed against him for demanding and accepting a bribe from an importer to cover up a case of duty evasion.

The other 14 are of the rank of joint, additional or deputy commissioners and cases against most of them are of corruption, possession of disproportionate assets, money floundering and accepting a bribe.

At least five officials among the suspended ones have cases of accepting bribe ore breaking rules to benefit traders under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime.

Their retirement has been ordered invoking Clause 56 (j) of the General Financial Rules of Central Government Services.

The measure comes a week after 12 income tax officials, complaints against whom ranged from corruption, extortion, disproportionate assets, sexual harassment and illegally stopping the promotion of colleagues, were forcibly retired.

According to sources, the compulsory retirement is an ongoing move under which the government would also ask those who have consistently been performing below average, to retire before their term ends.

The government is planning to weed out the corrupt and inefficient from all ministries and departments. The step would also help in generating more jobs in the government departments, the sources said.

“The government may announce recruitment drive on the posts on which vacancies arise,” they said.

Clause (j) of rule 56 state that: “The Appropriate Authority shall, if it is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so, have the absolute right to retire any Government servant by giving him notice of not less than three months in writing or three months’ pay and allowances in lieu of such notice.”

Published On : 18-06-2019

Source : Deccan Herald