PM orders review of Centre's 45 Lakh work force utility

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Exclusive report

PM orders review of Centre's 45 Lakh work force utility

88 ministries, Deptts. told to justify manpower

Lowering retirement age too under consideration

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Oct. 1

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is embarking upon another exercise on a massive scale to review the very utility of Central Government's massive workforce of 45 lakh employees.

He has  ordered a review of all kinds of under 88 ministries & departments. Never before a Prime Minister initiated an exercise of this scale to review manpower planning of the government's recruitment policy.

Sources in the PMO say that this is being done to tame unemployment and boost fresh recruitment. These administrative reforms will create new jobs as times have changed and obsolete manpower has to be discarded.

In a notification issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) buried in a corner of the website under “Cadre Review Division” on September 17, the government said, “In order to formulate manpower planning and policies, service profile of various services/cadres/posts in the govt. is required. In view of the above, all ministries and departments are required to furnish the required information by September 30.”

All 45 lakh employees will have to account for their utility & purpose of employment by their departments with a vision of the future. Each one of them will have to explain in writing their utility and why they require such a huge structure. The deadline for these departments ended yesterday.

The Centre is also toying with the idea of lowering of retirement age of its employees and fix their years of service to reduce stagnation and expedite promotions. But this is at a very preliminary stage. Its main object is to to reduce the government expenditure. The proposal doing the rounds in the PMO is to retire employees who have completed 33 years of service or on reaching 58 years of age, whichever is earlier. The proposal is being processed by the Department of Expenditure, which is looking into its financial implications.

At present, the retirement age in most of the services is 60 years, though for teaching and medical professionals, its 65 years. The latter category may not be affected. But their pay may be frozen if they want to continue, said a senior officer dealing with the proposal. Curiously, Economic Survey 2018-19 had made a strong case for increasing the retirement age in the wake of the rising life expectancy rate in India.

ends 

312 top officers dismissed from service by Govt.

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

312 top officers dismissed from service by Govt.

Conduct of 1.20 lakh officers reviewed, says PM

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, July 10

The government today disclosed that disciplinary provisions have been invoked against as many as 125 Group-A officers and 187 Group B officers.

Though news regarding pre-mature retirement/dismissal of only two dozen officers of the Indian Revenue Services and Customs had come to light. But the government said the total number of officers against whom dismissal/pre-mature retirement proceedings initiated under rule 56 (J) had been invoked.

In fact, in a major disclosure, the Prime Minister also disclosed that the government reviewed the conduct and functioning of as many as 36,756 Group-A and 82,654 Group-B

officers under FR 56(j). The review of almost 1.20 lakh officers in services was reviewed for the period between July 2014-May 2019.

And out of these action was initiated against 312 officers.

Disclosing this in the Lok Sabha today, the Prime Minister said in a written reply As per the applicable Disciplinary Rules, Government has the right to proceed

against corrupt officials on the basis of available evidence. The Government also, has the

absolute right to retire Government officials prematurely on the ground of lack of integrity and

ineffectiveness, in public interest, as per the provisions of Fundamental Rules (FR) 56(j)(l), Rule 48 of Central Civil Services (CCS) Pension) Rules, 1972 and Rule 16(3) (Amended ) of All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) [AIS(DCRB)] Rules, 1958. These rules lay down the policy of periodic review and premature retirement of Government servants, which is a

continuous process.

The PM was responding to a question asked by A Raja (DMK) who wanted to know whether the Government has ordered compulsory retirement to some of the Government officials across the country and whether the Government has ordered compulsory retirement to those officials also against whom charges have not been proven so far and their case are still under trial.

The government said that it had right to take action against the officers whose integrity was considered doubtful and due to other reasons.

PM-Kisan big headache for Modi

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Exclusive report

PM-Kisan big headache for Modi

How to Link 12.56 crores Farmers with Banks before polls 

Maharashtra's 1.18 crores farmers to get Cash dole 

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Feb 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued instructions to ministries of Rural Development, Agriculture, Finance and Information Technology to link 12.56 crores land-owning farmers with banks so that Rs 2000 could be transferred in February-early March. Once first installment is gone before notification, the government can also give second installment of Rs 2000  too.

The Ministries are working day-in and day-out with 36 states and union territories to collate farmers with their bank accounts.

Interestingly, 14 states including Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal are big beneficiaries as land records of farmers are fully computerized. Of the 12.56 crores farmers, 1.18 crores farmers in Maharashtra will benefit as their land record data is 98.83% complete and most are linked to banks too. (see Table) 

Surprisingly, the Agriculture Ministry data shows that land records is very poor in Goa where only 53% are computerized and  number of farmers is only 51000.

During the past 55 months, 34 crores new Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in the country. Of these, 15 crores are in the rural areas. Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told Lokmat that of the 12 crores MANREGA beneficiaries, the data of 8 crores beneficiaries is computerized. “We are now trying to find out land owners and link them with bank accounts.”

Radha Mohan Singh, Union Agriculture Minister, also told Lokmat that a data base of 8.59 crores exist in his ministry.  Of the 2.22 crores are beneficiaries of 15 schemes and 2.07 crores are linked with bank accounts. There are 7 crores farmers who have Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). 

Now PM Modi wants states and ministries to complete the task of linking 12.56 crores land oning farmers with their bank accounts by February 25 so that money could be transferred directly in their accounts.

Modi has covered 67% of rural population of land owning community by his PM-Kisan scheme. The foot-print of this cash transfer will spread over 342 rural Lok Sabha constituencies.

Ends

Status of computerisation of land records
State	Number	% complete
Odisha	4524000	100.00
Karnataka	6977000	99.99
Telangana	5249000	99.44
Madhya Pradesh	7560000	99.21
Jharkhand	2304000	99.12
Maharashtra	11871000	98.83
West Bengal	6969000	98.10
Andhra Pradesh	7550000	97.16
Rajasthan	4748000	96.86
Gujarat	3634000	96.41
Punjab	361000	93.63
Uttrakhand	808000	93.58
Sikkim	57000	93.29
Haryana	1117000	92.93

Finding a new defence minister a herculean task

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Special report

Finding a new defence minister a herculean task

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, May 3 :

Finding a new Defence Minister is getting extremely tough for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Though pressure is mounting from the Opposition parties that Modi find a full-time Defence Minister considering continued threat from across the borders, Modi is finding it difficult to relieve Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of the additional charge.

The issue cropped up again when Jaitley called on the PM yesterday ostensibly to discuss the crisis in the Valley and mutilation of bodies of the Indian jawans by the Pakistanis.

Jaitley who was to visit Japan had to defer his visit by two days in the wake of current situation. It is learnt that he pleaded with Modi to relieve him of the additional charge as early as possible. However, Modi is reported to have said that it will take a while to find a suitable person for the key Cabinet post. Modi doesn’t want to reshuffle his Cabinet in a hurry and under pressure.  

The reasons for not appointing a full-time Defence Minister after Manohar Parrikar’s sudden departure to Goa are many. Sources say that the matter was discussed at the high-powered core committee meeting of the party comprising of PM, BJP chief Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari and M Venkiah Naidu. 

Modi reportedly said the situation is back to square one as it existed in May 2014 when Arun Jaitley had to be given the dual charge of the defence ministry in May 2014.

He had a great difficulty in persuading Manohar Parrikar to come to Delhi and hold the charge of Defence Ministry. But he had to go back in less than two years. He asked the core group members to suggest a name for the post as none of the senior Chief Ministers of the BJP ruled states can be moved out as Assembly elections are likely to be held within the next 12-18 months in their states.

Though one of the proposals under the consideration was to move Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to Defence and give additional charge of the Railways to the Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. But it was felt that no purpose will be served by replacing dual charge of one minister with the other.

Secondly, Modi is keen to undertake a major reshuffle of his Cabinet. He wants to do it after the President and Vice President’s elections in July-August. 

Modi is also keen to find new faces in states who can be brought to the Centre. Amit Shah is already on tour of states for next 90 days and tirelessly campaigning. 

The PM had told a group of MPs from Maharashtra the other day that 30 ministers of his government have no work after 2 pm. He had also said that good governance is minimum government which virtually signaled that he may trim his ministry.

Therefore, finding a new Defence Minister is turning out to be a herculean task.