The Gujarat government has ordered the compulsory retirement of two taluka development officers over alleged financial and other irregularities, taking the number of such orders issued in the state this month to six, according to a report by the Times of India.
The officers are H F Bhuvatra, taluka development officer of Ranpur in Botad district, and M B Rao, taluka development officer of Shihor in Bhavnagar district. Both are Class 2 officers and were facing allegations and pending inquiries related to financial irregularities, the report said.
Taluka development officers work within Gujarat’s local development administration, making their offices significant to the implementation of rural infrastructure and public welfare programmes. The reported action therefore places administrative accountability at the centre of the state’s local governance machinery, although the report does not specify the individual transactions or schemes linked to the allegations against the two officers.
The latest orders follow two compulsory retirement decisions issued earlier in the week against D I Bhaglani, joint commissioner of the Gujarat State Tribal Development Residential Educational Institutions Society in Gandhinagar, and J M Tuvar, managing director of the Gujarat Safai Kamdar Development Corporation in Gandhinagar.
Earlier this month, the government also issued similar orders against two mid-level IAS officers, Kankipati Rajesh and Gaurav Dahiya. Rajesh has been under suspension since July 2022 and is facing corruption and money-laundering charges being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate, according to the report.
Dahiya was suspended in August 2019 over allegations including misconduct, moral turpitude, bigamy and cheating. He was reinstated in July 2023. The report does not state whether the compulsory retirement order against him relates to all the allegations or to a specific disciplinary proceeding.
The six orders cover officers working across local development, tribal education institutions, sanitation-linked administration and the state civil services. The spread of departments indicates that the government action is not limited to a single administrative unit, though the available report does not provide details of the inquiries, findings or service rules applied in each case.
Sources cited by the Times of India said the state government had adopted a tougher stance against officials accused of corruption. The General Administration Department has also stepped up follow-up with departments on long-pending disciplinary matters, according to the report.
Compulsory retirement is an administrative service action and is distinct from a criminal conviction. In the cases involving ongoing investigations or allegations, the available information establishes the government orders and the reported proceedings, but does not establish final criminal liability. Further details of the disciplinary records and the government’s formal orders were not included in the report.
