Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has approved force retirement for 10 senior Department of Telecommunications (DoT) officials, mostly from Indian Telecommunications Service (ITS), sources close to the development said.
This is the first time that employees in the DoT have been given forced retirement under section 56 (J) under Pension Rule 48 of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.
‘Perform or perish’ drive
Continuing his ‘perform or perish’ drive and zero tolerance for corruption, the move from the Minister comes a day before the eve of “Good Governance Day” celebrated by the government every year.
“The Minister has approved forced retirement for 10 senior DoT officials for doubtful integrity and the government’s zero tolerance for corruption. Out of 10, nine officials were working at Director level and one official is of joint secretary (DDG) rank,” the source said.
Another source said that the list names of the official would come in a day or two.
In September, a senior BSNL official, who was caught napping in Vaishnaw’s meeting after the Cabinet cleared a ₹1.64 lakh-crore package for the public sector enterprise, was given voluntary retirement from the service.
Vaishnaw, who also holds Railways portfolio, has cleared forced retirement for about 40 officials in the Railways Department for their non-performance and doubtful integrity which includes a Secretary level officer and two Special Secretary level officers.
He is been making statements publicly about making PSUs like BSNL at par with private firms and to do that he will take all the measures.