The head of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet campaign ,Swacch Bharat, has quit as secretary in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. PM’s much publicised cleanliness campaign has yet to complete one year,
A Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Vijaylakshmi Joshi, asked for voluntary retirement despite she having three years service in left.
Various media reports suggest that the minister, Birender Singh, has forwarded her resignation to the Cabinet Secretariat.
“Mrs Joshi has no comment to offer on the issue,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted by Economic Times.
A 1980-batch officer, Joshi was shifted from her role as the secretary in the panchayati raj ministry to the sanitation ministry just before Prime Minister Modi launched Swacch Bharat Mission.
Critics have questioned the success of the Swachh Bharat Mission criticising the central government for the poor results of this nationwide cleanliness drive.
Meanwhile, Joshi becomes the second top-ranking civil servant to seek voluntary retirement from Modi government after the home secretary, LC Goyal sought VRS on personal grounds last week.
Goyal was later replaced by Rajiv Mehrishi, who had expressed his desire not to accept any extension in his term which was ending on 31 August.