Lucknow, Nov 26 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's crackdown on 'inefficient and corrupt' officers in the state government has left more than 1,000 employees in various cadres 'jobless'.
The latest 'victim' of the chief minister's 'zero-tolerance for corruption' policy is IAS Rajiv Kumar, who has been served a notice of forced retirement. The Centre has also been informed of the same.
A 1983 batch IAS officer, Rajiv Kumar has faced serious charges of corruption in Noida and even had a stint in jail.
According to sources in the Chief Minister's Secretariat, the Chief Minister has retired 37 employees in various cadres in the Transport Department, 36 in the Revenue Department and 26 in the Basic Education Department.
"All of them were facing corruption charges and some were found to be inefficient in the departmental reports," said an officer in the Chief Minister's Secretariat.
Besides, 25 officials in the Panchayati Raj Department, 18 in the Public Works Department, 16 each in the Labour Department, Institutional Finance and 16 in Commercial Tax Department have been sent into forced retirement.
The Appointment Department sources said that five IAS officers have already been 'deemed resigned' for overstaying their foreign assignments. They include Shishir Priyadarshi (1980 batch), Atul Bagai (1983), Arun Arya (1985), Sanjay Bhatia (1990) and Rita Singh (1997).
The Chief Minister has also directed that tainted officers should be kept in waiting as a punishment of sorts.
The state government has also initiated action against officers of the Provincial Civil Services who have been placed under suspension. These include Ghanshyam Singh, Rajkumar Dwiwedi, Chhotelal Mishra, Anju Katiyar, Vijay Prakash Tiwari, Shailendra Kumar, Raj Kumar, Satyam Mishra, Devendra Kumar and Saujanya Kumar Vikas.
The PCS officers, who have been terminated, include Ashok Kumar Shukla, Ashok Kumar Lal, and Randhir Singh Duhan, while Prabhu Dayal has been demoted from the post of sub-divisional magistrate to tehsildar,and Girish Chandra Srivastava has also been demoted.