Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 21: 2,724 officers were booked for corruption in the year 2021.
Disclosing this in the Lok Sabha today, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also Minister Incharge DoPT,informed the House that action was taken against 2,724 corrupt officials including 248 cases of prosecution sanction in 2021.
In reply to a question, Dr Jitendra Singh said, as per information provided by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), final decision was taken by the respective competent authority on the advice of the CVC in 2724 cases and out of these, 55 cases of deviation from the Commission’s advice were noted.
The Ministry / Department where the respective competent authority, including those in the organisations under them, took the final decision in the aforementioned 55 cases are – Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Textile, Ministry of Coal, Department of Fertilisers, Department of Atomic Energy, Ministry of Power, Department of Commerce, Department of Youth Affairs, Department of Higher Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs.
In reply to another DoPT related question, Dr Jitendra Singh informed the House that from the year 2018 to 2021, 4,798 persons with benchmark disabilities have been recruited through direct recruitment in the posts and services of the Central Government.
DrJitendra Singh stated that several measures were initiated by the Government to create public awareness and assist candidates with benchmark disabilities in applying for relevant posts.
The Minister informed that facility of scribes for written examination / computer based examination are provided to the persons with Benchmark Disability candidates having benchmark disabilities in the category of blindness, locomotor disability (Both Arms Affected) and cerebral palsy if desired by the candidates and to the remaining candidates of Persons with Benchmark Disabilities on production of certificate from the Chief Medical Officer/Civil Surgeon/ Medical Superintendent of a Government Health Care Institution at the time of examination.
Compensatory time of twenty minutes per hour is also provided to such candidates and all such provisions are included in the notices of examination.
On the question of measures being taken by the Government to create accessible workplaces for persons with benchmark disabilities, DrJitendra Singh said, the measures already specified as per “Harmonised Guidelines & Standards for Universal Accessibility in India 2021”, “Handbook on Barrier Free and Accessibility” and other manuals issued by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs/Central Public Works Department from time to time are being followed to create accessible workplace for persons with benchmark disabilities.
Filling of vacancies for persons with benchmark disabilities is a continuous process. With the enactment of ‘The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016’, four per cent of the total number of vacancies to be filled up by direct recruitment, in the cadre strength, in each group of posts, i.e. Group A, B and C, are reserved for such persons.