Ashwini Vaishnaw ousts 10 senior DoT officers with doubtful integrity

Continuing his perform or perish drive and zero tolerance for corruption, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has approved force retirement for 10 senior DoT officials, including a joint secretary, an official source said on Saturday.

This is the first time employees in the Department of Telecom have been given forced retirement under section 56 (J) under Pension Rule 48 of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972.

"Telecom minister has approved forced retirement for 10 senior DoT officials for doubtful integrity and the government's zero tolerance for corruption. Out of 10, nine officials were working at director level and one official is of joint secretary rank," the source said.

The move from the minister comes a day before the eve of "Good Governance Day" celebrated by the government every year.

In September, a senior BSNL official, who was caught napping in Vaishnaw's meeting after the cabinet cleared a Rs 1.64 lakh-crore package for the public sector enterprise, was given voluntary retirement from the service.

Vaishnaw, who also holds Railway portfolio, has cleared forced retirement for about 40 officials in the railways department for their non-performance and doubtful integrity which includes a secretary level officer and two special secretary level officers.