Babus in Punjab are apparently averse to the notion of managing their babudom from offices. Punjab Police too, it seems, is no exception. Checks carried out by the Government found 40 officers, including deputy commissioners and senior superintendents of police, absent from their offices.
Taking a serious view, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought explanation from Chief Secretary and the state police chief. The explanation is being seen as an attempt to pull up socks after losing seven parliamentary seats in the recently-concluded polls.
Out of the total 40 officers found “absent”, 18 are DCs, and 22 are the SSPs. “Chief Minister has directed the state Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to seek explanation from 18 deputy commissioners and 22 senior superintendents of police found absent from their duties during a surprise inspection of various offices,” said a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office.
He informed that the inspection was made by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) on the landline numbers of the concerned DCs and SSPs during the office hours between 9:20 am and 10 am on Monday.
Only the DCs of Ropar, SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr), Sri Muktsar Sahib and Bathinda were found present, besides two SSPs of Barnala and Mohali.
The directions to seek explanation comes a few days after the Chief Minister issued separate set of instructions abstaining officers to function from their camp offices at residences, and also to check their overstay in official accommodations.
Badal had also asked the government officers not to leave their headquarters without the prior approval from the competent authority, while clarifying that no complacency would be tolerated at any level in terms of ensuring good governance, clean and accountable administration.
It was informed that the Chief Minister has taken serious note of growing tendency among several officers to operate from the camp office at their residences due to which people coming from far off places have to face a lot of inconvenience.
Issuing a strict warning to the erring officials, Badal asked them to function from their offices from 9 am to 5 pm on all working days to ensure prompt and hassle-free delivery of services to public. A notification to this effect was also issued by the state government recently.
Badal also reiterated the state government's firm commitment to ensure punctuality and discipline amongst officers or officials in the government offices from 9 am to 5.
The district administrative heads, who were absent from their duty, included those of Amritsar, Barnala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Faridkot, Fazilka, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Mansa, SAS Nagar, Pathankot, Patiala, Tarn Taran, Moga, ludhiana, Sangrur and Ferozepur, said the spokesperson.
“Barring two SSPs of Barnala and Mohali, remaining 22 SSPs were found absent from their offices,” he said adding that no one from the office staff of SSP Patiala and SSP Muktsar responded to the calls made by the CMO.
Chief Minister also impressed upon the officers to discharge their duties with utmost dedication, honesty and professional commitment in the public interest, besides maintaining decorum and punctuality in offices to win over the confidence of the general public.