Screening on, axe to fall on corrupt, lax officers
LUCKNOW:As the Yogi Adityanath government continues screening officers and employees at different levels, the axe is likely to fall on those officers who are in the 50-plus age group and facing departmental inquiries for corruption or poor performance.
About 20 to 25 percent of state government’s nearly 9 lakh employees (22 lakh with those working in local bodies, PSUs and educational institutions etc.) are in 50 -plus age group, making it a cumbersome task for the committees constituted to complete the screening process, the deadline for which was July 31, early.
Those whose performance will come for a close scrutiny include 50 to 100 IAS officers and 200 to 300 PCS officers.
As less than 10 out of over 80 departments have reported some progress holding at least one meeting of the screening committee by the deadline, chief secretary Rajive Kumar has now asked the departments to expedite the screening process and submit a report soon.
“At least five to six screening committees are holding meetings almost every day at government, departmental and district levels and we hope to get some reports in next two weeks,” said a senior officer.
The chief secretary heads the committee for IAS and PCS officers. Principal secretaries, secretaries, heads of departments, district magistrates or even sub divisional magistrates are chairmen of committees constituted for other officers and employees.
For IAS officers, the screening committee has to have representation of union government. A request therefore has been sent to Department of Personnel and Training to nominate an officer. The committee for PCS officers has met once and directives have been issued to complete the pending Annual Confidential Reports (ACRs) soon.
“ACRs in many cases have remained pending for the past three to four years and need to be completed at the earliest,” said the officer.
While the Yogi government says screening has been a regular feature of governance, sources said the process was not carried out during previous SP regime.
The Yogi government is believed to have taken a leaf out the Modi government at the centre that has also carried out the screening process in the past three years.