Calcutta, Nov. 18 :    Calcutta, Nov. 18:  Cracking down for the first time in 24 years on senior bureaucrats facing corruption charges, the West Bengal government has issued suspension orders against two IAS officers. The penal action has been taken against Biman Pande, secretary in the state Election Commission, and Sunil Oberoi, joint secretary in the agricultural marketing department, on charges of misuse of funds. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said he had signed the suspension order on November 16. Bhattcharjee said the order was part of his commitment to cleanse the administration. Since it came to power, the Left Front government has rarely confronted employees on corruption charges or initiated action against them. The chief minister had told The Telegraph in an interview published today that the government was planning a string of steps to weed out corruption and make its employees responsive to popular expectations. Bhattacharjee said today the government would soon introduce the Lokpal Bill. 'We are committed to introducing the Bill in the state so that charges levelled against any public figure, including the chief minister and other ministers, could be investigated,' he added. The two officials have been suspended on recommendations sent to the government by the state vigilance commission. 'Both have been charged with financial irregularities and will remain suspended till the full inquiry is completed,' a senior member of the chief minister's secretariat said. Sources said the two have been accused of defalcation of funds when they were posted at the Administrative Training Institute at Salt Lake. 'The two cannot disown responsibility when funds totalling Rs 8 lakh was misappropriated at the Administrative Training Institute,' said an official. Pande was also involved in an unseemly incident at the state government Circuit House on Hungerford Street last month. Police had registered a case against him. Pande said tonight that he was being falsely implicated. Oberoi, on the other hand, remained unavailable for comment till midnight. The suspensions have not gone down well with a section of IAS officers. 'Look, these officers could have been placed on the compulsory waiting list till the full inquiry was over,' an officer said. But the chief minister had made it clear that the government would act tough to tone up the administration. Bhattacharjee had said the government would also target shirkers among its heavily-unionised employees.