The Hindu : Other States / Orissa News : Hi-tech way to root out bribery, corruption

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Saturday, Mar 14, 2009
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Hi-tech way to root out bribery, corruption

Staff Reporter

CBI’s Orissa office launches SMS campaign

CBI has offices at Rourkela and Bhubaneswar
The State CBI registers 20 to 22 cases annually

BHUBANESWAR: Stay alert. If any central government or public sector unit employee is seeking bribe to get your legitimate work done, it is time to teach the corrupt a good lesson. Call a cell phone number, a team of Central Investigation Bureau sleuths will soon be at its work.

For the first time CBI’s Orissa office has launched SMS campaign providing mobile phone number and email address and sought cooperation from general public to catch corrupt central government employees in the State.

“We don’t know whether all the information expected to be flowing in from general public after the SMS campaign will be actionable or not. But our main objective is to inform people that CBI deals with anti-corruption cases and approaching us is not at all a difficult task,” CBI Superintendent of Police M. S. Sundarajan said here on Friday.

If the campaign helped raise awareness level among people, then it would be considered that half of the objective was fulfilled, Mr. Sundarajan said.

CBI was expecting that organisations such as Indian Post, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Indian Railways, public sector general insurance companies, all nationalised banks and rural banks, income tax and central excise tax offices where public interface was more would come under the scanner.

“Similar campaign had been launched in other States like Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. Reports say it has yielded good result,” said CBI deputy superintendent of police P. K. Panigrahi.

According to sources, a navy commander in Visakhapatnam was recently trapped by CBI sleuths while he was demanding bribe of Rs. 1 lakh from a person.

After CBI office receives complaints or inputs, it will analyse if those are actionable. Subsequently, depending upon the gravity of case, a team of CBI investigators would be activated.

Right now, CBI has a unit office at Rourkela while majority of the cases were coordinated and followed up by Bhubaneswar office.

Sources further said that CBI received around 400 complaints every year. But many of the cases turn out to be irrelevant for the premiere investigating agency of the country. Sometimes it gets dowry-related cases, which are supposed to be dealt by State agencies. The State CBI office ends up with registering 20 to 22 cases annually.

If the CBI office here receives more complaints from general public, it could segregate those cases on the first place and then start working seriously. Information about corruption can be reported to CBI SP on 9437579001 or 0674-2561375.

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