Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Need for `internal and external vigilance'

Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI: Vigilance was the price one had to pay for their integrity, the Commissioner of Police, Tiruchi, Prateep V. Philip, said on Thursday at the Vigilance Awareness Week celebration organised by the Indian Overseas Bank.

Internal vigilance was as important as the external one, he said. The people in third world countries look upon public service as a way to make money. Globalisation has led to the deterioration of values, which was not a luxury but a necessity, he said.

`Greed drives corruption'

"It is not need that drives corruption anymore, but greed," he opined, and said that the public too played a part in initiating corruption. With the media constantly flashing images of a high lifestyle, everyone aspired to live it without sparing a thought for the millions of underprivileged people in the community. He advocated `equilibrium thinking,' a concept he had innovated a few years ago. This could be achieved by being the positive and negatives in oneself, he said, and added that it helped one to exercise self-restraint.

Mr. Philip appealed to the crowd not to indulge in the illegal gratification of public servants, but bring such instances to the notice of the police immediately. He added that now people from rural rather than urban areas registered most of the vigilance cases. The Commissioner also sought the co-operation of the public to make the Police Department "ethical and clean."

The Chief Regional Manager of IOB, Tiruchi, R. Chandran, said corruption had assumed monumental proportions and that checking it was becoming increasingly difficult.

Identifying the `honest' from the `not so honest' was not easy, he said.

The programme was followed by a PowerPoint presentation on vigilance awareness.

The bank officials later interacted with their customers as part of the observance of the customer fortnight of the bank.

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