Picture for representational purpose only.

PATNA: Altogether 18 Indian Administrative Service ( IAS ) and 208 Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) officers in the state are facing departmental proceedings on charges of various types of corruption, misuse of office and dereliction of duty.

According to a report prepared by the general administration department (GAD) recently, 12 IAS officers had been facing departmental proceedings from the period before March 31, 2016. The state government initiated similar proceedings against six more IAS officers in between April 1, 2016 to February 2018.

Similarly, altogether 145 BAS officers had been facing departmental proceedings from the period prior to March 31, 2016. The state government initiated similar proceedings against 63 more BAS officers in between April 1, 2016 to February 2018, leading the total number to 208.

Besides them, 94 persons of Bihar Clerical Service are also facing departmental proceedings on various charges of corruption, misuse of office and deliberate negligence of duty.

“If the number of clerical staff are included, the total number of state government’s officers and employees facing departmental proceedings will rise to 320,” a GAD officer told TOI on Friday.

He said, under the departmental proceedings a senior officer of the concerned department conducts an internal inquiry in the wake of the charges levelled against the officer/ employee in the question. “If the charges against the officer/ employee are found of very serious nature, the matter was then referred to the departmental inquiry commissioner for further action,” the officer said.

Besides the officials facing departmental proceedings, three IAS officers have been put under suspension on the charges of serious nature of corruption. One of them Sudhir Kumar is in jail since February 24 last year the day he was arrested on the charges of leaking question papers in a recruitment examination conducted by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC). Sudhir, a 1987-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, was heading the commission before his arrest. Three of Sudhir’s relatives including his college teacher brother, brother’s wife and a nephew were also taken into custody in the question leak case.

Other two IAS officers who are under suspension are S M Raju (1991 batch) and Deepak Anand (2007 batch).

Besides these, 83 officials of different state services were caught red handed while accepting bribe by sleuths of Vigilance Investigation Bureau in year 2017.

