Uttar Pradesh Government cracks whip on corrupt police officials

The Uttar Pradesh government started an operation to screen corrupt police officials who will be asked to take compulsory retirement, the state's top cop said on Thursday.

"The idea is to refurbish the image of the state police. As part of the clean-up efforts, corrupt policemen will be asked to take compulsory retirement," DGP, OP Singh, told PTI.

"Separate committees have been formed to screen names of IPS, PPS (Provincial Police Services) and other corrupt officials who are to be given compulsory retirement after the report is submitted," he added. 

When asked how much time would be taken to initiate the process to screen the officials, the DGP said, "Within a month". About parameters being taken into consideration for this action, he said, "Officials including IPS, PPS, and others who are minimum 50 years of age or have completed 30 years of service are under the scanner. 

"Those having serious corruption charges and facing departmental probe for moral turpitude will face action as per the zero tolerance policy of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath," he said. 

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After Narendra Modi's second innings as the prime minister, the UP CM has been reviewing the performance of various departments to weed out corruption and corrupt practices and the police department is on his radar. At a review meeting of the home department here last month, Yogi Adityanath had said, "Statistics are not a parameter for crime control" and actual standards are "faith of the people".

UP government spokesperson and senior minister Shrikant Sharma said, "Our government has zero tolerance towards corrupt and lax officials. In the past two years, action has been taken against such officials. A number of officials have been warned and their promotions have been stalled."

"UP is the first state in the country that has taken such action. We have set an example and more action is in the offing," he said. 

According to official sources, in the past two years, action has been taken against around 600 officials, including 169 from the Power Department, 25 from the Department of Panchayati Raj and 18 from the PWD. The focus is now on cleaning the police department and sprucing up its image, the sources added.

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