No punishment, only early retirement for corrupt Gujarat babus

Updated: Jul 9th, 2024

Image made with AI

Grappling with corrupt babus, systemic frauds and unaccounted funds worth crores, the Gujarat government has prepared a list of 100 corrupt officials. 

 The list has been compiled by the Gujarat Vigilance Commission based on applications and complaints received by the Lokayukta and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). As per the report, the majority of complaints of corruption were against the urban development and the revenue department, followed by the panchayat and home departments. 

Sources said that though the government has listed the names of the corrupt officials, they are still far from finding a strict action plan to fix the corrupt babus. 

In the past 15 days, the state government has handed forced  retirement to five Class 1 or IAS cadre officers facing complaints of irregularities, as per reports. 

On July 5, the state ordered the early retirement of the finance department’s D P Neta and S H Gandhi, both Class 1 officers serving as Deputy State Tax Commissioners.

It has also enforced the premature retirement of a  Class 1 Gujarat Administrative Service (GAS) officer S J Pandya.

Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay ordered the retirement of D D Chavda, R R Bansal, and F M Kureshi on July 4. The three cops were facing departmental inquiry and had criminal cases against them.

The series of suspensions and immediate retirements lead to administrative tensions in the government, plagued by allegations of corruption.

Currently, the ACB is probing Rajkot’s suspended town planning officer (TPO) Mansukh Sagathiya over possession of  disproportionate properties beyond his known sources of income.

The state also transferred his brother K D Sagathiya from the post of Additional Chief Town Planner (ACTP) to the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board (GIDB) on July 7.

With over a hundred names of corrupt officials , and more complaints piling up, it needs to be seen if the state government continues with its process of early retirements, or takes solid action against the corrupt government servants who are looting tax-payers money.

Also read:

K D Sagathiya, brother of suspended Rajkot TPO Mansukh Sagathiya, transferred

ACB arrests SK Langa on transfer warrant

Gujarat