M A I N   N E W S

Punjab Govt apathy a shield for the corrupt
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 8
Struggling to rid itself of the image of endorsing the corrupt and ageing bureaucracy, the Punjab Government has failed to make any impact to rein in the “wolves among its stock”. With the government overlooking its own civil service rules formulated to ease out inefficient or the corrupt deadwood from its “babudom”, dishonest officials are thriving.

The Punjab Civil Services Rules provide for a mandatory review of the service record of all government servants upon their attaining the age of 55 years as well as when they complete 25 years in service. The rule is followed more in the breach than in practice. As per rules, the retirement age of 58 is applicable to only those who cross the 55-year mark with no blemish on their service record.

The review provided for in Rule 3.21 is intended to prematurely retire all those government employees whose efficiency or integrity is suspect. The rule has, however, degraded into a mere formality and there have hardly been any cases in recent memory where undesirable government servants have been sent home following such reviews.

The rules entitled “The Punjab Civil Service (Premature Rules), 1975,” which have been on the statute books since 1975 have remained a dead letter.

Sources within the government admit that the number of cases where these rules have been invoked can be counted on fingertips.

Corruption among government servants can be gauged from the fact that in 2008, the Punjab Government had informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that 25 IAS officers and 10 IPS officers were facing CBI and Vigilance inquiries and criminal cases.

Similarly, the government had also had to name 1,398 police personnel who were facing serious charges ranging from rape and murder to running fake currency rackets and facilitating illegal immigration.

In its maiden report to the Vidhan Sabha in 2007, the erstwhile Punjab Vigilance Commission had also come out with damning statistics about hundreds of officers who continued to be in service even while facing serious allegations and charges.

Legal experts agree that these rules, which have the force of law, cannot be regarded as a mere formality and invoked on rare occasions.

The government, they add, is bound to carry out a review of all its employees sincerely and well before the threshold age is reached in individual cases.