Under Amit Shah, MHA taking strict action against erring officers

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is cracking the whip on delinquent and erring officers, including both gazetted and non-gazetted officers who have seen the highest number of dismissals, removal and compulsory retirement in the last two years.
According to the 2022 annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), between April and December 2021, 57 cases of vigilance or disciplinary action have been registered against 61 gazetted officers, while 3,976 cases of vigilance or disciplinary action have been registered against 4,032 non-gazetted officers, which translates to about one gazetted officer facing vigilance or disciplinary action every week between April and December 2021. This period also saw the highest number of such officers facing action from the government.
In 2020 too, the MHA had registered about 67 cases against 74 gazetted officers and in 2019, 65 cases against 65 gazetted officers were registered by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The MHA under Amit Shah has also been taking the strictest disciplinary action against gazetted officers and last year alone, 10 gazetted officers faced strict punishment. Out of these 10 officers, 5 gazetted officers faced dismissal, while one was removed from service and four officers were made to take compulsory retirement from service.
Both 2019 and 2020 also saw similar strict action against several gazetted officers and in total, in these two years, five officers faced dismissal, two faced compulsory retirement and, interestingly, none faced removal in these two years. The action, MHA officials say, was taken to ensure that officers of such high rank were serious about their work and not engage in things which did not conform to their service rule book.
Removal, dismissal or compulsory retirement for gazetted officers ensure that several benefits such as perks and pensions given to government employees are curtailed by the government. This would act as a deterrent for government officers to ensure that they do not engage in any unethical work.
Apart from strict action, several minor actions are also taken by the MHA as and when disciplinary or vigilance inquiry is concluded against officers and, according to the annual report of the MHA, censure, warning, withholding of promotion, etc., are some of the other actions taken by the ministry against erring officers.
The Sunday Guardian, while analysing earlier reports from the MHA, found that prior to 2019, the MHA had taken more of minor action against erring officers, which included mostly censure and warning rather than such strict actions of dismissal or removal from service.