Agartala, July 12: A day after Tripura Leader of the Opposition and CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury alleged that the repeated reappointment of retired IAS officers reflected a “systematic pattern” of protecting corruption, on Saturday Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha rejected the charges, blaming a few suspended officials with “tainted” records for spreading misinformation.
Saha claimed that some officers who have be suspended over alleged misconduct were supplying documents to opposition to malign the government and its officials.
“They are giving all sorts of these copies to the opposition parties. On the basis of these things, they are carrying out propaganda against our government and our officers,” he said.
Defending the reappointments due to scarcity of IAS officials, the Chief Minister said the same practice had also been followed during the previous Left Front government.
“If an officer has been reappointed eight times, that means four years. During their tenure also they did the same thing. Some officers received extensions for nearly eight years,” Saha said.
On Friday addressing a press conference at the Tripura Legislative Assembly, LOP Chaudhury questioned why some retired bureaucrats continue to receive repeated extensions and re-employment despite the availability of regular serving officers awaiting promotions and despite allegations of administrative and financial irregularities against many of those got reappointments.
Targeting Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha, the Opposition leader alleged that the government was deliberately retaining a select group of retired officials in influential posts year after year because they had allegedly “fulfilled the corruption demands of their political masters.”
He claimed the practice had demoralised honest officers and weakened transparency and accountability within the state administration.
Chaudhury demanded an independent and impartial inquiry into appointments of few re-employed retired bureaucrats as well as the allegations of financial irregularities and misuse of public funds linked to them.
