The Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha has come up with a premature retirement policy for employees whose integrity is found doubtful and who are found ineffective.

The objective behind the decision is to make the government machinery more dynamic, reliable and ensure efficiency in the administration and delivery system, officials said.

The move came close on the heels of the Narendra Modi government’s decision to review performance of its 1.19 lakh Group A and Group B employees.

Sanjeev Chopra, principal secretary to the general administration and public grievance department, said: “The objective is to weed out officers and employees of doubtful integrity or inefficiency from public service to ensure efficiency in administration.”

The government has issued a circular on the decision and asked different department secretaries to treat it as “most urgent.”

The government said premature retirement could be ordered in public interest alone and not as a penalty on the employee concerned.

Review committees will shortlist the employees for the premature retirement.

An employee will come under scrutiny after completing 30 years of qualifying service (regular service) or attaining 50 years of age. If the review finds an employee fit, he or she can continue another five years.

On attaining 55 years of age, the employee will face another review. Found fit again, the employee can continue till the retirement age of 60.

Separate review committees will be constituted for different categories of employees. The committees will make their recommendations. The

review committee, while recommending the premature retirement of an employee, should place the reason of its findings in detail. The employees will be asked to go through a periodical performance review.

“The basic consideration in identifying inefficient employees will be the fitness and competence of the employees to continue in the post which he or she is holding,” the circular said. Some clauses have been included to protect the employees.

“While the entire service record of an officer should be considered at the time of review, no employee should ordinarily be retired on grounds of ineffectiveness if his service during the preceding five years or where he has been promoted to a higher post during that five-year period, his service in the higher post has been found satisfactory,” the notification said.

It added: “Ordinarily no employee should be retired on the grounds of ineffectiveness if he is retiring on superannuation within a period of one year from the date of consideration of the case. It is clarified that in a case where there is a sudden and steep fall in the competence, efficiency or effectiveness of an officer, it would be open to review his case for premature retirement in the year preceding retirement.”

According to the notification, the employees need to undergo reviews in a three-month interval, on the basis of which the decision for premature retirement can be taken.

The performance of Group A and Group B officers will be reviewed by a review committee on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31.

The Group C and Group D employees’ performance will be reviewed on June 30 and December 31.

The government has made it clear that all steps would be taken so that the employee would get the pension without any hassle. They will be served a notice of three months and they can avail themselves other benefits like earned leave and travel allowance.