Mumbai Mirror : Lata Mishra : Monday, September 20, 2010 :
These numbers, obviously, come from the civic body itself. Worse, 36 of them have been reinstated with many of them even enjoying a promotion Outgoing Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha had recently said, one third of Indians are “utterly corrupt” and half are “borderline”. But the BMC would like you to believe that only 129 out of its 1.27 lakh employees can be called corrupt, that too in a span of 14 years.
This was revealed in a reply to a RTI query filed by social activist Anil Galgali. Of course, anyone who has had the misfortune of having to deal with the members of the civic body – whether it is a sweeper or a senior engineer – will tell you how vastly different the real picture is.
According to the 90-page reply, out of the 129 tainted employees 77 have been suspended, 36 have been taken back and six have been forced to opt for Voluntary Retirement Scheme. A closer look at the charges against these individuals shows you how the system malfunctions. An attendant with the Post Mortem Department was suspended in 2001 for tampering with reports, for a paltry Rs 200. On the other hand in Januray 2009, Ward Inspector, C Ward, Ruchita Rajendra, was caught by the Anti Corruption Bureau for demanding a bribe of Rs 2000 to accept an RTI application.
Galgali is not surprised. “Agreed this number is ridiculously small but BMC claims that these numbers represent only those who are being investigated at the moment. It is obvious these figures are not correct.” But what is surprising, says Galgali, is the fact that not only 36 corrupt officials have been reinstated to their jobs, many have also been promoted, which is against the law. “It is clear the BMC is not at all serious about taking action, and none of the charges filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau have any teeth," adds Galgali. Reports suggest that while the number of corrupt civic officials trapped by the ACB has gone up more than ten fold in the last ten years, the number of inquiries initiated by the BMC has gone up only marginally (see box).
A senior ACB official, refused to be named said, "While we do our best to act upon the information provided by concerned and aware citizens, very often we find the accused pulling strings and flexing his political muscle to get away with it. Our efforts become pointless in such cases." The ACB has filed 87 cases against various BMC officials in the past 14 years.
Additional Municipal Commissioner, Ashish Singh said, "The moment the ACB catches anyone red handed, the person is suspended immediately. But sometimes we give the individual a chance to explain. In such cases, until the court gives its verdict, the employee cannot be suspended and can continue working with us."
Social activist and ex-IPS officer Y P Singh rubbishes the RTI reply saying, "Even if we go by the logic that one percent of the 1.27 lakh-strong civic body is corrupt, the number comes to more than 1,000. There are far more corrupt officials in the BMC, especially from the building proposal department, where the builder lobby routinely pays huge amounts to get more FSI for their projects."
This is corroborated by the RTI reply, which says of the 65 departments in the civic body, it is the buildings department that has the highest number of corrupt officials with Junior Engineers being the most tainted. So far action has been initiated against 17 junior engineers, 12 mukadams, eight sub engineers and six assistant engineers.
Readers may recall, in March this year, a bright young engineer with the BMC's building and factories department had allegedly committed suicide, unable to deal with the way his department functioned. His death had sparked off a furore among his colleagues, who demanded action against the rampant corruption in the department and pressure from seniors and other influential builders and politicians. Other than assurances from Municipal Commissioner Swadhin Khsatriya that an inquiry will be conducted into why so many engineers had demanded a transfer from the department and others quit in quick succession, nothing much has happened.
Meanwhile, those BMC employees whose names figure in the list of 129, continue to remained unfazed under the scrutiny. Narendra Barde, Assistant Commissioner, L Ward, allegedly involved in a SRA scam in 2005 defended his position, “I was in P south ward when Anti Corruption Bureau asked me for details in a 2003 SRA project details. The charges against me were false and the matter is still in high court.”
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