The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Corrupt officials to come under scanner

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Friday, Apr 18, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Corrupt officials to come under scanner

Staff Reporter

Collector orders installation of spy cams

To keep ‘secret watch’ on them
Plans to ‘scan’ such officials

Kakinada: As a follow-up to his warnings of stringent action against officials who lack transparency in their functioning or demand monetary consideration from the people for doing their duties, District Collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi is planning to keep a ‘secret watch’ on such officials who bring bad reputation to the government by their actions, a district official told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Dwivedi’s move to closely watch the officials is said to be prompted by the need to create a sense of fear among them so as to prevent them from stooping to low levels for personal advancement.

The Collector normally orders a departmental inquiry whenever any instance of graft surfaces but quite often the investigation tapers off or the guilty go unpunished mainly due to lack of evidence.

Penal action

To reduce this scope of corrupt officials escaping from penal action, the Collector is learnt to have ordered installation of spy cameras which will help in catching the corrupt officials red-handed. He is also said to be working a mechanism wherein the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the police will swing into action as and when any case of corruption, fraud or other forms of dishonesty on the part of officials is detected along with enough evidence.

Soon after taking charge last month, the Collector has made it amply clear that he would not play the role of a spectator to the public money being swindled or people being troubled by corrupt officials who demand money for getting things done.

His resolve to crack the whip has been strengthened by the conduct of some district officials who flouted the norms in executing certain orders related to the respective orders recently. He (the Collector) has also told such officials, in a recent review meeting, he would not hesitate to report their style of functioning to Chief Minister if they persisted with their wrongful ways of administering things.

Thus, the Collector’s plan to ‘scan’ such officials with the objective of disciplining them, is felt to be the need of the hour to curb the evil of corruption at least to some extent.

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