SIC Deepak Deshpande: ACB raided State Information
Commissioner Deepak Deshpande, who had been appointed by Bhujbal after
he retired as PWD secretary. ACB found that he has one flat each in
Thane and Aurangabad and three in Pune. Deshpande also has four plots
and five hectares of land in Aurangabad, 1.53 kg. gold, 27 kg. silver,
investments of Rs.2.68 crore, 6,360 shares of companies and two cars.
ACB is yet to scan three bank accounts and four lockers. Sources said
the cabinet would advise removal of Deshpande from his post. When Mumbai
Mirror called Deshpande, he refused to comment.
He has since resigned from his post.
My
comments: If the RT I Information Commissioner, who is the instrument
for containing corruption turns out to be corrupt, it is a sad story.
Anti – Corruption Bureau:
The
number of corruption cases reported till April this year has risen. The
state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a 23% hike in the number of
cases recorded in the first four months of 2015 as compared to 2014.
A
total of 479 offences were registered until April this year as compared
to 369 till April last year. Another 48 offences were registered in May
this year. A new trend witnessed in recent complaints is the rise in
the use of technology. Besides a helpline phone number, the
Anti-Corruption Bureau has also launched a mobile app and Facebook page
which have proved to be handy tools for the public to lodge complaints
and for the agency to nab offenders.
Within three months, the bureau’s Facebook page has been ‘liked’ by 24,478 people.
Director
General of Police (anti-corruption) Praveen Dixit said that their
Facebook page and helpline number 1064 have helped in nabbing corrupt
officials. “We hope to reach to even more people through our mobile
application which is becoming very popular especially with youngsters,”
said Dixit.
Until May this year, of the 527 cases registered, 50
pertained to disproportionate assets, and the bureau unearthed Rs.7.97
crore worth of assets acquired by public servants through illegal means,
of which assets valued at Rs.1.27 crore have been seized.
The
revenue department continues to lead the graft chart with 160 officials
caught in the first four months this year, followed by 142 from the
police department.
The bureau has also seen a sharp rise in the
conviction rate. This year the rate of conviction has also gone up to
50% as compared to last year, which was 22%.
An official from
the bureau said that the number of corruption cases was quite high in
the early part of the year. “Despite conducting awareness programmes in
government offices, corruption continues to plague various departments,”
said this official who asked not to be named.
CM Chandrababu Naidu:
The
Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) filed a charge sheet in the
cash-for-vote case identifying the person referred to as ‘Babu’, ‘Boss’
and ‘Naidu’ by the main accused as Andhra Pradesh chief minister
Chandrababu Naidu.
“We mentioned the name of Chandrababu Naidu
in the chargesheet after taking into consideration the details of
conversations of the accused and also the statement of complaint Elvis
Stephenson recorded by a magistrate u/s. 164 of the CrPC,” ACB special
public prosecutor Surendra Rao told TOI.
The ACB has narrated
how the accused in the case – Reddy, Sebastian, and Reddy’s aide, Udaya
Simha, and Sebastian’s friend, Jerusalem Mathaiah – held negotiations
with Stephenson to offer him with Rs. 5 crore in cash, of which Rs.50
lakh was delivered to Stephenson. The ACB recorded this cash delivery
with audio-visual equipment after Stephenson filed a formal complaint
about the allurements he was receiving from the TDP.
Can you believe? Yakub Memon in 2013 when he was in Central jail wrote an essay, in which the following lines were written:
“In
spite of a great Constitution, greed and corruption are posing a threat
to unity and India’s reputation as a civilised nation. People of India
need moral and spiritual cleansing to see that we do not succumb to the
evil of greed and corruption”.
Analysing the essay, a city
psychiatrist, who does not want to be named, said, “Fear of being hanged
cannot impair one’s basic intelligence. Yakub is well-educated.
Sometimes what you believe also reflects in what is said or written
spontaneously.”
Psychiatrist Dr. Sudhir Bhave said, “It may be a means to create an impression that he is indeed loyal to the country.”
Corruption in BMC:
The
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), embarrassed by the spotlight
on it for all the wrong reasons as corrupt civic officials are routinely
trapped by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), has now made the
‘supervisory officer’ responsible, if more than one officer from their
department is caught.
The decision was taken after a meeting
held recently by municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta with civic officials.
The commission, in a meeting told officials that when a citizen
approaches the civic body, he should be provided a reply within a time
limit. He said the direct supervisor should know what his staff is
doing. For instance, he said, the supervisor of the department issuing
birth certificates should know how many people have asked for a birth
certificate and how many were provided. If a certificate has not been
issued within a specific time limit, the supervisor should question the
concerned officers.
Complaint of corruption at ACB :
Over
64,000 corruption complaints were received by the Central Vigilance
Commission last year, a rise of 82 % than the preceding year.
The
Commission received 64,410 complaints, including 2,048 brought forward,
during 2014. “It is for the first time that the Commission had received
such a high number of corruption complaints,” a senior CVC official
said. Railways topped the list of government bodies with over 12,000
complaints of alleged corruption last year. It was trailed by 6,836
against bank officials, 3,572 against Delhi government employees and
3,468 against IT officials as per the annual report.
Out of
64,410 complaints received by the CVC, 36,115 were vague or
unverifiable, 758 were anonymous or pseudonymous and 24,012 were for
officials not under CVC.
There were 1,214 verifiable complaints
which were sent for inquiry or investigation to Chief Vigilance Officers
(CVOs), who act as distant arm of the CVC, and CBI.
Railways
topped the list of government organisations against whom maximum number
of complaints of alleged corruption – 12,776 – were received by the
CVOs, followed by 6,836 complaints against bank officials, 3,572 against
Delhi govt employees and 3,468 against Income Tax officials in 2014.
The
CVC had received 37,039, 16,929 and 16,260 complaints in 2012, 2011 and
2010 respectively, according to its annual reports for the respective
years.
