The Hindu : New Delhi News : L-G trains gun on corrupt officials

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 19, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

L-G trains gun on corrupt officials

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, FEB. 18. Taking a serious note of the recent spurt in corruption cases involving officials of the various government agencies and some elected representatives, the Delhi Lieutenant-Governor, B.L. Joshi has asked the Delhi Government as well as the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to present a "status report" on posting of officers in sensitive positions, identifying vulnerable areas of corruption and appointing private consultants for introduction of third party quality assurance regime.

It is learnt that his secretary, G.S. Patnaik, has written letters to the Delhi Government and the MCD on his behalf. It is no secret that Mr. Joshi has made corruption a big issue and the need to curb it in order to ensure vibrant functioning of the democracy. It is understood that Mr. Joshi has stated that he would like to discuss and formulate an action plan for sensitising officers and employees on the issue of corruption. The letter by the Lieutenant-Governor comes at a time when a Cabinet decision taken by the Delhi Government for implementation of the third party quality assurance regime taken way back in January 2003 is still hanging fire for some strange reason.

It is learnt that the communication by Raj Nivas clearly states that efforts should be intensified to identify vulnerable areas of corruption and posting of officers on rotation basis after checking their vigilance report thoroughly. The communication also clearly points out that instructions in this connection were conveyed to the concerned authorities in the past also but the progress reports have not been submitted and therefore before making the presentation on the issue to the Lieutenant-Governor, it would be appropriate that a status report is filed on the issues raised by him.

Apart from this, the Lieutenant-Governor has also sought a detailed report on the procedure adopted for preparation of the "Agreed List" that gives the go ahead to the investigation agencies for conducting investigations and subsequent raids on the premises of the corrupt officials. The agreed list is prepared by various agencies including the vigilance authorities in close coordination with the Heads of the Departments to scrutinise who all should be taken to task.

Mr. Joshi has made no bones about his resolve to deal with the issue of corruption and had made it clear that he would not think twice for taking action against those who are involved in such acts. As for the third party quality assurance, the Lieutenant-Governor was of the view that in order to ensure infrastructure of international standards in the Capital especially in view of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the Government had to also adopt global standards for execution of such products. Therefore it was important that a third party quality assurance regime is put in place for testing materials used for infrastructure projects in the Capital. There have been instances in the past when big flyover projects came in for quality scrutiny soon after their inauguration after sub-standard material was used in their construction. A case in point is the Mayapuri flyover that developed cracks soon after it was inaugurated early 2003. An inquiry was ordered into the incident but nothing came out of it.

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