A “private” dinner for fellow IAS haunts Madhya Pradesh chief secretary Avani Vaish

A DINNER for fellow IAS officers arranged on October 8, 2010, has haunted Madhya Pradesh chief secretary and 1975 batch IAS Avani Vaish in days to come. The state Lokayukta has now registered a complaint that Madhya Pradesh IAS officers Association organized a dinner for 250 IAS officers and the payment of Rs 1,43,901 was made by the government. Had the IAS officers divided the bill, all that each officer needed to pay was mere Rs 575, and sixty paisa.

Lokayukta PP Naolekar clarified that it was “not an FIR”, but information was being sought on the complaint against the chief secretary regarding the IAS dinner. Vaish told a national newspaper that there was no “hanky- panky”, and it was a dinner hosted by the chief secretary and the government paid the bill. He claimed that no rule was violated.

But RTI activist Ajay Dube who filed the complaint argued in an affidavit that rules were violated as state government cannot foot the bill of a private organization, and MP IAS Officers Association is a private organization. The Lokayukta is expected to take the final call.

On a post dated May 27, 2011, BoI (babusofindia.com) reported the incident.

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Two important decisions are as follows:

a) Continuation of minor penalty proceedings against public servants even after retirement with provision for a ceiling of 10% cut in pension for a period not exceeding five years. Such cut in pension in minor penalty proceedings would, however, be non-mandatory.

b) Change in the present penalty of `compulsory retirement` (with full pension) to “compulsory retirement with a cut in pension upto 20%”.