Madhya Pradesh: No action on CM's directive to identify non-performing staff

BHOPAL: When it comes to protecting government officials and employees, do bureaucrats go to the extent of defying directives of even the state's chief minister? It seems so, at least in Madhya Pradesh. Over a month-and-a-half back, chief minister Kamal Nath had directed officials to identify non-performing employees and terminate them from service.
The criterion was to scrutinize employees who have completed 20 years in service and are above 50 years of age and have become liability on the government.Department heads were directed to send a list of such employees, but nothing has happened so far. Departments have not conducted review meetings to identify such employees. The only exception to it is the state aviation department.
The general administration department (GAD) stated in its July 6 order that as per the CM’s directive, all employees who have attained the age of 50 and have completed 20 years of service will be subjected to a performance review.
Employees whose performance is found to be unsatisfactory will have to face compulsory retirement. Departments were directed to conduct the review in 30 days after which the process of removing non-performing employees had to be started.
The GA department directed all department heads to monitor the performance review process and inform it about the results within 30 days. GAD officials confirmed on Tuesday that except one, none of the other departments, had conducted the review meeting and are far from drawing up a list of non-performing employees.
GAD has now issued reminder to the department heads, but the officials are unsure whether it would be followed in the near future or not. Performance of a government employee is generally reviewed on the basis of its annual confidential report (ACR) and health condition.
Officials said such directives are not new and in the past too, instructions were issued to identify non-performing officials and employees. However, such directives were abandoned after taking action against a few junior employees who did not turn up for work for long due to health or other issues. This time too, the same is expected.