Not the right exposure

Sir, - As a former officer of the Indian Customs & Central Excise Service and practising advocate, I curiously looked into the CVC website to know the names of the so-called corrupt officers of the department. But the list contains the names of those who are no longer in service or prime postings and whose cases are yet to be authoritatively decided by court. There is no information about various officers whose integrity is a matter of public debate. There are bigger sharks.

The public at large are more concerned about officers who are indecisive, inefficient and file-pushers. It is this class which causes serious damage to society and requires to be exposed. These officers deliberately avoid taking decisions in matters where the benefit has to go in favour of the assessee. The delay results in immense loss to the public, thereby giving rise to corruption. The corruption in the bureaucracy has to be exposed rather than hounding an officer whose decisions are merely in favour of the assessee.

One would wish that the CVC, instead of publishing a list of officers who are no longer in service and who are no longer in prime postings, displays the names of those who are inefficient and indecisive and who manipulate or retain a posting in one place, thereby creating a lobby.

Incidentally, I recollect that long ago a journal published allegations against a serving officer and also listed his ``tariff'' for each of the ``services'' rendered by him. Whatever might have happened to him, one outcome of the publication of his ``tariff'' was that the rate was uniformly followed thereafter all over the country!

A. S. Sundar Rajan,

Chennai

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