New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has scrapped membership of the prestigious Delhi Golf Club for bureaucrats as part of a crackdown on its notoriously work-shy civil servants, according to a report in the
Hindustan Times newspaper.
The memberships had, according to the newspaper, been awarded to a select group of serving and retired bureaucrats by the previous Congress government.
But the government has now scrapped the perk, cancelling memberships for 27 civil servants teeing off from the club's plush greens and mulling the future of another 30.
The newspaper said the quota scheme organised by the Urban Development Ministry, which oversees the club's land, was ended after it was found to be in "contravention of rules and regulations," without elaborating.
After his landslide election victory last May, the PM cracked the whip on India's civil servants, who are notorious for arriving late, taking long lunches and whiling away afternoons on the golf course.
The PM said in a speech that he was shocked by what he saw in the corridors of power after moving to Delhi.
The Delhi Golf Club, which dates back to 1930, is spread over 200 acres(80 hectares) in the heart of the city with sprawling greens interspersed by Mughal-era ruins.
Ministry officials could not be contacted for comment, while the club said it had no comment to make.