Ruckus in House over ‘compulsory retirement’ to 39 officials

NEWDELHI: The compulsory retirement handed out to 39 officials rocked the North Delhi Municipal Corporation’s house meeting on Wednesday. The councillors said a “pick-and-choose” method was adopted and some “honest and efficient” officers were given compulsory retirement.

Most of the officers retired by the civic body belong to its engineering department and were junior, assistant and executive engineers. These 39 were part of 108 officials from different government agencies who were given compulsory retirement.

In July this year, lieutenantgovernor Anil Baijal had directed the chief secretary, municipal commissioners and heads of other government agencies to “weed out dead wood and dark sheep” to abolish corruption and make the administration better.

The councillors demanded a review committee of the House to look into each case.

Leader of opposition in the House Sujeet Pawar said, “Some officials who were innocent were also targeted. It seems the officials who were given compulsory retirement were included on a pick-and-choose basis. A review committee, including House members, should look into the matter.” Leader of the House Tilak Raj Kataria and the Congress councillor Mukesh Goel also demanded a review.

North corporation commissioner Varsha Joshi denied the allegations. “Rules have been followed meticulously. All processes were followed and multilevel scrutiny was done before identifying any official for compulsory retirement. Corruption has to be controlled and such an exercise is required,” she told the House. Defending the action, she said a review committee, which can have only administrative officials as members, already exists.

Joshi said a review committee having political executive as its members cannot be formed but she assured that complaints of the sacked officers would be reviewed, if they approach the committee, without any bias.