Himachal Congress chief seeks action against tainted officials

Congress' Himachal Pradesh unit chief Sukhvinder Sukhu Thursday asked Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to act against the government functionaries of doubtful integrity by removing them from sensitive posts.

"The party has adopted zero tolerance against corruption and the government employees facing departmental proceedings and figuring in the 'doubtful integrity' lists should not be allowed to continue in sensitive posts," he said in a statement here.

His reaction came two days after the opposition BJP took a dig at the government over its stand in the state high court over the tainted officials.

"The government should not just remove them from their posts but also make their names public," BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt had said in a statement.

The government itself has identified 43 officials with doubtful integrity and conveyed this through the additional advocate general to the state high court, which directed that they be shifted to non-sensitive posts.

But the government has taken a U-turn. It asked the high court Dec 2 to either recall or modify the order "as non-sensitive posts are not there in all cadres, hence, it may become unavoidable to post some officers in posts which cannot strictly be termed as non-sensitive".

Sukhu said the government should fix time-frame for completion of departmental proceedings against such officers.

He also urged Virbhadra Singh to ask the departments concerned to expedite the pending trials against such government employees.

The high court order on tainted officers came on the plea of former drug controller Sher Singh in 2012 demanding a stay on the departmental proceedings against him.

The court later widened the scope of the matter to address the basic issue of tainted officers in sensitive posts.

It will now hear the case Dec 6.