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Noose tightened around erring govt staff Dereliction

 

of duty may prove to be costly 

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 20
Dereliction of duty by government employees may prove to be costly as those who fail to perform the assigned work within time frame, will now be deemed lacking in devotion to duty.

Similarly, no government employee, in performance of his duties, will be able to act in a discourteous manner, adopt ‘dictatory tactics’ or wilfully cause delays in disposal of the assigned official work.

The tightning of the noose around errant government officials has been made possible by a recent Punjab government notification, by way of which, the Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1966, have witnessed first amendment in them. “Not only this, every government employee, at all times, should act in accordance with the policies of the government regarding age, marriage, preservation of environment, protection of wildlife and cultural heritage,” said the amendment.

“Those government officers or employees who fail to ensure quality in their work or to perform their assigned duties well within stipulated time frame and fail to redress grievances of people, will now be facing music,” said Jasbir Singh Bir, secretary, Punjab (personnel), while talking to The Tribune. He said the objective of the amendment was to ensure transparency in the working of the government offices and employees.

“The government employees and officers are public servants and they are required to give priority to the welfare of public. They should realise that the salaries they are drawing is from the kitty of taxes being paid by people. The officers should ensure that they are present in their offices at a fixed time so that people could meet them for their grievances,” said Bir, who was here to participate in a function organised by the Patiala Social Welfare Society. Bir was awarded the ‘Karamyogi Bir Dasondhi Ram Award’ by the society for his achievements in administrative field.

Others who were conferred awards by the society included Manjit Singh Narang, additional chief administrator (PUDA), A.C. Verma, managing director, State Bank of Patiala and D.S.Grewal,

former deputy commissioner, Patiala. Vikas Garg, deputy commissioner, Patiala, assured that he will do his utmost to spearhead the good work already being done in different fields in Patiala, while society president Vijay Kumar Goel said his organisation had been organising blood donation camps, eye camps, free distribution of medicine and clothes to the needy people from time to time.

 

 

HC tells Punjab secretary to pay month’s salary as costs

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 10
Government functionaries, secretary-level officers included, now stand the risk of losing their month’s take-home salary for needlessly contesting writ petitions and not deciding the issues at the pre-litigation stage.

Making it clear that the Punjab and Haryana High Court would not tolerate such practices, a Division Bench comprising Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Nirmaljit Kaur today directed the secretary to the Punjab government, Department of Revenue, to deposit his month’s carry-home salary as costs for unnecessarily contesting a writ petition.

The Bench ruled the costs would be deposited with the Punjab State Legal Services Authority within a month from today.

The trend-setting directions, expected to minimise the wastage of court time by cutting down on unnecessary litigation, were issued in a mutation matter filed by Ludhiana-based Kanishka Oswal.

The Bench was of the opinion that the respondents, the state of Punjab included, had unfairly contested the writ petition in view of the factual and legal position.

Virtually passing strictures against the state and its functionaries, the Bench added it was in these kinds of cases where the non-application of mind was resulting in unnecessary litigation.

The Bench was of the view that had the revenue secretary taken into consideration the legal proposition fully propounded in the writ petition, it would not have been necessary for the court to hear the counsel for the parties for rendering the judgement.

The Bench added in order to ensure that the authorities in future exercised due diligence and applied as costs

their mind to the matters before them, they were satisfied that imposing costs was necessary. The decision would prevent the repetition of such acts in future, the judges added. The directions were issued in the presence of state counsel Praveen Goyal.

In her petition, Kanishka Oswal had earlier claimed that a bank had sanctioned credit facilities to her. In compliance with the terms and conditions of the sanction, she mortgaged property by depositing the original title deed with the bank.

The petitioner, in a communiqué to a tehsildar, then requested him to enter a mutation on the basis of the mortgage. The representation was forwarded to the village patwari, but he refused to enter the mutation. Dissatisfied, she moved the court for directions to the respondents to enter the mutation.

Before parting with the orders on her petition, the Bench allowed the prayer and directed the respondents to enter the necessary mutation in the revenue records within a week. (Source The Tribune 11-9-08.)

 

 

Even God cannot save this country: SC

New Delhi, August 5

"Even God will not be able to save this country," a fuming Supreme Court on Tuesday said while slamming the government for its refusal to amend the law for launching criminal prosecution against those who illegally occupy official houses.

 

“We are fed up with this government,” the apex court said, adding “They don't have the guts to differ with the opinion of the clerks.”

 

“Even God will not be able to save this country. In India even if God comes down he cannot change our country. Our country's character has gone. We are helpless,” a bench of Justices B N Aggrawal and G S Singhvi observed.

 

The apex court said PILs are being filed before it by people who are vexed with the approach of the government on various issues.

 

“You complain about judicial activism when you are in power. When you are not in power you come to us for remedy,” the bench remarked.

 

The bench gave vent to its anger as the Additional Solicitor General Amarender Saran bluntly told the court that the Union government has decided not to amend Section 441 IPC (criminal trespass) for prosecuting squatters of government accommodation in the country.

 

The government took the stance that the existing provisions provided under the Public Premises Act was sufficient to evict those illegally occupying government accommodation. Moreover, it claimed that out of 99,100 government houses only 300-odd dwellings were under unauthorised occupation for which had been made to evict them.

 

But this did not satisfy the apex court which said the government does not have the guts to take on the offenders. — PTI