The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) will soon come out with new norms that will restrict top government officials from either joining a political party or entering the poll fray within one year from the date of either resigning or retiring from the job.
Highly-placed government sources said there was a growing view within the DoPT that there should be a “one-year cooling off period clause’’ in the service rules of senior officials from the IAS, IPS and Class-A services.
Interestingly, even the Election Commission had recently written to the DoPT asking it to suggest a “cooling off period’’ for government officials from joining political outfits and contesting elections. The commission was of the view that this would help senior officials to remain impartial and work with greater integrity in the run up to elections.
The problem, sources said, was particularly more serious in the states. For instance in Punjab, where the Assembly elections concluded recently, a number of senior police officials resigned from their job and jumped into the poll fray.
Sources said the department will soon go to the Cabinet with a proposal to amend the service rules of important services. Incidentally, the DoPT already has a rule which bars a government official from joining the private sector from the date of resigning or retiring from the job.
“Since there are norms for government officials as far as entering the private sector is concerned there should be a similar rule for joining politics also. I think the Election Commission has raised a valid point and this would provide a level playing field,’’ a senior government official said.
Senior officials in DoPT said the government had been thinking of bringing in a cooling off period even before the Election Commission raised the issue.