In another strong push against corruption in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has given a stern warning to corrupt officials and staff saying there was no place for such practices in his government.“There is no place for corrupt officials and staff in the government… Action must be taken against such officials by forcing them to take voluntary retirement,” an official release quoted the Chief Minister, while he reviewed the work done of the Secretariat Administration Department.
Following in the footsteps of Modi government, CM Yogi has directed the officials to prepare a list of corrupt officials who would be forced to take voluntary retirement. According to media reports, so far 30 such names have been identified by the UP government and administrative proceedings against them have already started.
“Officials, who cannot work in an honest manner with the policing system, should be forced to take voluntary retirement. The official who does not take interest in working, is a burden and a blot on the police uniform, they should be given the voluntary retirement. Corrupt police personnel will either go to their home or to jail,” CM said, warning corrupt police officials, in another meeting he chaired at the Home Department.
As part of his advice to bureaucrats and officials, the Chief Minister also mentioned the arrest of three private secretaries, who were arrested in January this year, as they were caught in a sting operation demanding bribes for official work. Yogi Adityanath’s tough stance against corruption is sure to further boost the state’s plan to execute various developmental programs in a streamlined and transparent fashion.
UP Chief Minister’s stern warning comes days after the central government asked several senior tax officials to retire over serious allegations of misconduct such as fraud, extortion and sexual harassment. The officials, all from the Indian Revenue Services (IRS), included commissioners – one of the topmost ranks in the Income Tax Department; joint commissioners, additional commissioners, deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners.
UP Chief Minister also enquired about the status of implementation of e-office and asked the officials to speed up the process. E-Office is a ‘product suit’ developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) that helps in faster clearance of files and envisions a paperless office. Successful implementation of e-office will further aid the anti-corruption agenda of Yogi Adityanath government, as it addresses the traditional slippages in government offices which have plagued the Indian executive for long. E-office also pushes to make the government ‘paper-less’ by promoting the execution of administrative tasks over Information technology infrastructure. Yogi Adityanath also pushed for the ‘e-office’ to be taken at the district levels and use to preserve important documents of the secretariat.
The CM was accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary Mahesh Kumar Gupta, Secretariat Administration Department, Principal Secretary of Chief Minister SP Goyal in the meeting.