DHAKA: In a massive crackdown on corruption, the state government headed by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has announced plans to fire 900 corrupt officials in the next two months.

The accused officials were caught taking bribes or charged with amassing huge disproportionate wealth.

A decision to dismiss the corrupt officials was taken at a daylong high-level meeting of the officials held in Patna on Wednesday.

The meeting was chaired by Kumar who connected with the district administrative and police chiefs through video conferencing and sought details of corruption cases pending against the corrupt officials.

In the past nine years, since the Nitish Kumar government came to power in Bihar, as many as 880 corrupt officials have been caught on the charge of graft.

Of the total arrested, 576 are those who were caught red-handed by the anti-corruption sleuths taking bribes from the people in lieu of doing their works.

The government is now hugely annoyed over the way these corrupt officials continue to be in the job even though being caught red-handed by the government agencies and then using the salary to fight cases against the government itself.

It has now asked the authorities concerned to conclude department proceedings against these officials as soon as possible and remove them from job without any further delay, reports gulfnews.com.

BDST: 1928 HRS, JAN 16, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor