Other States - Uttar Pradesh   

IAS officials' move misconduct: Govt.

Action Group seeks members to identify five most corrupt officers from their rank

LUCKNOW: Trying to bring the bureaucracy in line, the Uttar Pradesh Government has termed as ``an act of misconduct'' the proposed move by the IAS Action Group to identify five most corrupt officers in the State through secret ballot.

``It has been found after ascertaining the legal position that any voting conducted privately by a limited number of IAS officers to call other members corrupt is an act of misconduct,'' it said in a statement here on Wednesday.

The government's response comes in the wake of Action Group convenor and senior IAS officer Vijay Shankar Pandey's allegation that his seniors were ``conspiring to implicate him in false cases''.

Principal Secretary (Home) Alok Sinha denied the allegation saying the government had no information about an FIR against Mr. Pandey.

Mr. Pandey had recently written letters to other IAS officers to identify the five officials having maximum assets disproportionate to their known sources of income through secret ballot.

The group launched a similar campaign to identify the ``three most corrupt IAS officers'' on December 14, 1996, but the names were not made public, the statement said.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, meanwhile, fixed August 17 for further hearing of the petition filed by Mr. Pandey seeking a direction to the State Government to stop ``coercive measures'' against him.

Justices O P Srivastava and G K Gupta directed the State Government to file its counter-affidavit before the next date.

Mr. Pandey in his petition also sought a direction to the State Government to file the records of what he alleged to be a vigilance inquiry against him.

The government counsel informed the court that no FIR had been registered against the petitioner.

Officials suspended

Meanwhile, expressing anguish over failure to achieve plantation targets, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Wednesday suspended 11 forest department officials and ordered action against seven others. Chairing a review meeting of the department, Mr Yadav ordered the suspension of Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer B S Rao, Bijnore District Forest Officer, and 10 other officials for failing to achieve plantation targets in their respective districts-- PTI, UNI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

IAS officials' move misconduct: Govt.

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu