The country’s top external intelligence agency – the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has terminated the employment of four senior officers at the joint secretary level for non-performance.
It is a part of a drive to clean up all government departments of nonproductive officers at senior levels. The sackings, over the last year, and have been spearheaded by the Department of Personnel and Training, according to a report by the Economic Times newspaper. In 2015 the department decided that officers, with 30 years of service or over 50 years of age, could be let go under certain sections of law.
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The officers who have been let go of the RAW has been repeatedly overlooked for promotions and had been turning “unproductive” after a review of the service record and annual performance appraisal, the report said. All the four senior officers had been serving in key posts in European countries.
According to the report, RAW has let go of compromised personnel earlier but usually under provisions that allowed them to seek remedy in courts.
Minister of State Jitendra Singh had told the Parliament last December that provisions to let go of officers under rule 56(J) had been invoked against 53 Group A officers and 123 Group B officers after July 2014.
The rule allows the government to prematurely terminate officers in public interest after due consideration of the officer’s service record.