Yogi moots compulsory retirement for non-performing cops

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked all DGs, ADGs, IGs, DIGs and SSPs to identify officers who are not performing at the optimum level and to submit the list of their names by the end of June.

These officers, a government spokesman said, will be compulsorily retired.

"Such officers can be told to hang up their boots and go home by serving them a notice of three months and not citing any reasons for the move.

"This order is being seen as Adityanath's first big move to clean up the bureaucratic machinery. The centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been carrying out such a review of central officers above the age of 50 and retiring some in public interest," the spokesman added.

Replication of this exercise in Uttar Pradesh could ruffle the bureaucracy in the state which is already facing a spate of transfers. The normal age of retirement is 60 years.

An earlier order issued last year by the then Chief Secretary, Rajiv Kumar, said: "Under Fundamental Rules -56, the competent authority at any time can serve a three-month notice to an official above 50 years of age and send him on compulsory retirement. No reasons need to be cited in the said notice."

He said in the order that though the provision has been there in the rule books for long, the same has not been implemented in Uttar Pradesh.

The Modi government has been serious in taking action against non-performing officials to cut out deadwood or black sheep from their ranks.