NEW DELHI: Law-enforcing agencies, including the CBI, has registered corruption cases against over 100 civil services officers in the last five years. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has also recommended actions against a large number of officers.
According to data with the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pension, the government has registered 110 corruption cases against 166 civil service officers (mostly IAS and senior state officers) between 2018 and February 28, 2023 through CBI alone.
“Between 2018 and February 28, 2023, Maharashtra has registered the highest number of 35 cases against the civil service officers for their alleged involvements in “unethical professional” practices, like bribery and taking undue benefits with the use of their power and position. After Maharashtra, J&K registered the second highest number of 18 cases”, the government data showed, which has been accessed by this newspaper.
Karnataka registered 14 cases of corruption, while Uttar Pradesh lodged 13 cases against their civil service officers during the same period. Besides, the ministry had recently informed the Rajya Sabha that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recommended actions against 6,367 government officers from 2017 to 2021 for their involvements in corrupt practices. The data further shows, the CVC recommended for the criminal proceedings against 433 out of 6,367 officers.
According to one estimate, the total number of major and minor penalties and other actions taken during the said period were 8,794. This is in addition to 817 sanctions for prosecutions ordered by the competent authorities against corrupt government officers, including civil servants.
A senior officer of IAS here, preferring anonymity, said that cases of corruption are being registered against civil service officers at a time when the country has a shortage of 850 IAS officers in particular to touch the sanctioned strength.
“Currently, there are 5317 IAS officers in position in India against sanctioned strength of 6789. UP faces the highest shortage of 67 IAS offices to meet the sanction strength of 378, followed by Maharashtra with a shortage of 57 IAS officers”, the government adapt shows.
