Chandigarh, August 21
Punjab has prematurely retired three PCS officers, Kiran Rosy, TN Passi and Jai Pal Singh, as punishment for causing loss to state and gross misconduct, including graft. But, this is not the end of the story. Fourteen other PCS officers accused of various irregularities and causing loss to the state exchequer will face a similar punishment soon.

Among the three PCS officers who have been given premature retirement, Kiran Rosy has been accused of amassing wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income and committing irregularities in the auction of plots during her stint as the Deputy Director, Consolidation.

Passi is accused of issuing fake driving licences and registering vehicles out of jurisdiction during his tenure as the SDM, Khadoor Sahib. Jai Pal Singh was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau on the charge of accepting bribe.

The decision to proceed against 14 other PCS officers comes after reconstruction of evidence against them.

The case files of all these officers went missing from the Punjab Civil Secretariat last year. The files, which contained complaints against these 14 PCS officers besides the inquiry reports, had mysteriously disappeared along with files of 17 other IAS and PCS officers. A former Under Secretary in the government had allegedly helped these officers by "losing" 31 sensitive files.

The government ordered an inquiry against the Under Secretary, and he was held guilty in a departmental inquiry.

A top government official told The Tribune that the state now had enough evidence to proceed against these 14 PCS officers. It had been decided that all government officials "who had become dead wood for the system, be retired prematurely", he added.

Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh confirmed that action against 14 PCS officers would be taken soon. He, however, declined to reveal the names of the 14 officers.

"We are now streamlining the system to ensure that manual interference in the annual confidential report (ACR) of the officers is reduced. We have already made the ACRs online for the PCS officers, and this year, we are making the ACRs online for all IAS officers," he said.