Times of India: Chandigarh: Monday, January 29, 2018.
If the UT
vigilance records are to be believed, it has failed to find anyone corrupt in
any department of the city in 2017. Reason: the vigilance department has
registered just a single FIR (first information report) and made no arrests in
the year, revealed a reply to a query filed under Right To Information (RTI)
Act.
The RTI
information pointed out the number of arrests and registration of FIRs have
been going down since January 2012. However, vigilance department disposed of
inquiries against bureaucrats and cops.
The RTI
information revealed that in the last six years vigilance sleuths have arrested
80 people in 50 cases. In 2012, the vigilance department registered eight FIRs
and arrested 30 persons. The figure dipped to 11 arrests in eight FIRs the next
year. In 2014, the vigilance registered four FIRs and arrested 11 persons,
while 13 FIRs were registered and 15 persons arrested in 2015. In 2016, 16 FIRs
were registered and 13 people arrested.
On the other
hand, the CBI arrested three cops of the UT police allegedly accepting bribes
in 2017. One of them was a sub-inspector. He was caught taking Rs 2 lakh bribe.
The other two were head constables one of them was caught with Rs 5,000 on the
first day of the year from Sector 31 police station and another was arrested
while taking a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a woman under Sarangpur police station.
On the other
hand, the CBI arrested a UT SDM and other bureaucrats of Punjab and Haryana
while taking bribe last year.
Sources said
not taking action on complaints in a timely manner was the main reason behind
the vigilance department losing the trust of people. UT home department should
issue detailed guidelines in cases of police personnel and inquiry officer must
not be from the same department to avoid direct conflict, sources said.
Ajay Jagga, a
senior advocate and an RTI activist, said the vigilance department needed an
online system, where action taken by the vigilance is made available.
"Pro-active working of the vigilance department is the need of the
hour," he said.
The vigilance
department, UT, conducts enquiries in respect of employees of UT, including
boards/corporations under the administrative control, as entrusted by the chief
vigilance officer (CVO). UT adviser is the chief vigilance officer. After
conducting enquiries, vigilance registers FIRs after taking permission from the
CVO.
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