M A I N   N E W S

17 top men in vigilance net

NEW DELHI, Jan 23 (PTI) — Seventeen top IAS and IPS officers including some of secretary rank, an SDM and a DCP in Delhi are among the bureaucrats against whom the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has recommended criminal or departmental proceedings on corruption charges.

The officers include two former chairmen of port trusts, a former Health Secretary of Delhi, a DG, Home Guards, a former IGP in West Bengal and a couple of Chief Secretaries.

The commission has made public the names of as many as 91 IAS and IPS officials against whom it has advised initiation of proceedings since January 1990 giving the nature of recommendations as well as the date and the status of these cases.

The list shows the commission is awaiting information on the outcome of most of these cases while in some sanction for prosecution has been accorded by the government.

Central Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal during an interaction with mediapersons said he wanted the public to know the officers who have come under a cloud because he favoured transparency in public administration to weed out corruption.

The commission’s focus was on three major objectives — simplification of rules, empowerment of the public and effective punishment of the corrupt to achieve the goal of zero tolerance against corruption.

Mr Vittal, a 1960 batch IAS officer, said by simplification of rules and procedures, the scope for corruption would be reduced to the minimum. By empowerment of people, he meant that the public should play an active role in rooting out corruption.

He said the people should take the lead in bringing the corrupt to book by helping in setting up traps against errant officials.

The CVC, who assumed office on September 3, 1998, for a four-year term, said he had already directed the CBI to give within four days photocopies of documents regarding a trap case to the departmental authorities for initiation of quick action against officials concerned for misconduct.

He said the commission had written to the government to confer on it powers to proceed against All India Service officers in states from the initial stages in cases of corruption.

Stating that he had written to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Assocham and FICCI to join him in his anti-corruption drive, Mr Vittal said these chambers of commerce should come together and openly sign an “anti-bribery convention” declaring that none of their members would indulge in bribery.

“If in the principle of zero tolerance to corruption declared by the Prime Minister we only focus on the receiving side of corruption, we will be missing the total picture and tolerating the giving side,” he said, adding that he was yet to receive a response from the chambers.

Mr Vittal termed obsolete laws and time-consuming bureaucratic procedures as “breeding ground” for corruption and suggested that there should be no law on the statute book for more than five to 10 years unless re-enacted after careful examination.

“This will automatically ensure that obsolete laws do not clutter the system,” he said observing that a committee appointed by the government had already suggested that out of 2,500 administrative laws, about 1300 should be scrapped.

Mr Vittal was critical of the voluntary disclosure of income scheme (VDIS) maintaining it was another example of giving legal sanctity to the wealth accumulated through corrupt means.