Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 22: The Government today ordered termination of services of 21 Government employees of various departments after declaring them as deadwood on the basis of reports obtained against them from the Vigilance Organisation.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who holds charge of General Administration Department (GAD), approved the proposal today after which the GAD issued individual termination orders to all 21 Government employees giving them compulsory retirement by invoking Article 226 against them.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the officers/officials terminated from the Government services today belonged to Public Health Engineers (PHE), Power Development Department (PDD), Consumer Affairs and Civil Supplies Distribution Department, Revenue etc.
The Government didn’t release the list of Government officers declared as deadwood to the media. Instead, it directly dispatched termination notices individually to all 21 officers informing them that they have been declared as deadwood and, accordingly, removed from the services in view of corruption and other charges of irregularities and that their services were no more required to the Government.
The terminated officers were picked up as they had completed mandatory requirements under the Government Service Rules like their age, particular period of services. They will be paid 3-month salary in advance.
However, what has raised question mark over the Government’s drive to weed out corruption from the Government offices was the fact that no senior or higher ranking officer falls in the list of dismissed officers/officials and only junior and low ranking officers have been dismissed.
In June 2015 during the regime of late Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the Government had given compulsory retirement to 63 officers. However, the Courts have struck down termination orders of six officers so far while cases of many others were pending in the High Courts at various stages.
In June 2015 list, the Government had compulsorily retired higher ranking officers like Chief Engineers, KAS, doctors etc.
Sources said the Government had taken report on deadwoods by Head of Departments (HoDs) as part of the exercise to weed out corrupt officers. On the basis of HoDs’ reports, the Government pursued the cases with the Vigilance Organization and obtained their reports.
“Today’s action (termination of services of 21 officers/officials) was taken on the basis of Vigilance Organisation reports,” sources said, adding that the officers were removed from the services on the basis of cases of corruption and irregularities pending against them.
In view of the High Court striking down the termination orders of six Government officers from previous list of termination, the Government this time has taken due precautions that the cases stand during judicial scrutiny.
“All due precautions have been taken to ensure that the cases of terminated officers withstand during the judicial process,” sources said.
Describing the termination orders as “continuous process” to weed out corruption from the Government departments, sources said the HoDs are regularly asked by the GAD to send the lists of corrupt officers to them, which are pursued with the Vigilance Organisation and Vigilance Commission.
“Only those officers/officials have been removed from the services, who had cases of corruption, irregularities and malpractices pending against them,” sources said, adding that 21 separate orders were issued to ensure that entire order is not stayed.
Similar practice was followed in June 2015 order in which all 63 compulsorily retired officers were issued separate termination orders.
“Advice of the Law Department has been taken before issuing the termination orders,” sources said.
They, however, admitted that there were no senior officers in the termination list and majority of those given forced retirement today were juniors including AEEs, Patwaris, clerks etc.
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