The Y S Jaganmohan Reddy led Andhra Pradesh government, in its latest move to fight corruption in the state administration, has roped in the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to study the structural issues in the government departments in relation to corruption and come out with measures to tackle them.
“The IIM-A would help us identify the structural issues in Mandal Revenue offices, registration offices, town-planning wing in civic bodies and also the police that are leading to corruption. Based on the inputs, the government will initiate corrective action to eliminate corruption,” a top official said to the PTI. The focus would be mainly on government departments that have earned notoriety for corruption. Departments like Revenue, Police, Municipal Administration and Registration, have become synonymous with corruption.
This initiative by the AP govt reveals the seriousness of the government’s commitment to checking corruption in government departments.
Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, who has been focusing on eliminating graft since he took over the reins in the state, has recently said at a high level review meeting here that the fight against corruption should be taken aggressively.
He had announced that the AP Anti-Corruption Bureau would be deployed in full force across the state in the next couple of weeks to try and stem corruption at all levels.
Some officials however pointed out the areas of concern that needs to be addressed first. “Sanctions for prosecution (of a corrupt official) is a major concern. In many cases, action against corrupt officials is dropped due to lack of sanction for prosecution (by higher authorities),” a high-ranking IPS officer, who worked in the ACB said.
“In IPC cases like rape or murder, you don’t require any special sanction for prosecution. This should apply to the Prevention of Corruption Act as well,” he added.
Pointing to the ‘great dichotomy’, he cited the case of a village revenue officer (VRO) who was caught accepting a bribe of Rs 200/- in 1994. The VRO is still fighting his case in the Supreme Court, while a senior official caught in a multi-crore rupee corruption case has gone scotfree only because his superior authorities didn’t permit his prosecution.
Besides engaging the IIM-A team’s services, the Andhra Pradesh government, on its part, is said to be working on related issues like primarily reducing citizen-official interface, using information technology-based systems, curtailing discretionary power and arbitrariness of bureaucrats and publishing the names of the corrupt employees on public website.
The AP government, based on the IIM-A report, is expected to suitably amend the PC Act for a complete crackdown on corruption.