Times of
India: Hyderabad: Friday, 06 March 2020.
Two
hundred cases are pending against corrupt officials in the Disciplinary
Proceedings Tribunal (DPT) in Telangana.
In
the liquor scam case alone, 87 officials are facing charges. While those
crusading against corruption blame DPT for slow progress in cracking the cases,
DPT authorities say that their work is hampered by lack of staff and absence of
a regular judicial officer.
Public
information officer (PIO) of DPT said they were hard-pressed in taking the
cases to the logical end. He said there was no regular judicial officer posted
as third member of the tribunal since 2014 except for short spells in 2016 and
2019. “Presently, chief judge of the city small causes court fills in. The
judicial officer conducts the bench work once in a week (on Fridays). The
judicial officer cannot spend much time in the tribunal because of
preoccupation in the regular court,” said the PIO.
DPT
officials also said that vacant posts of typist and senior steno have not been
filled up despite several representations to the state government. Currently,
only a senior assistant, junior assistant, record assistant and two office
subordinates are working in DPT. “Till technical vacancies are filled up and a
regular judicial officer is appointed, disposal of cases will continue to be
delayed,” an official said.
Earlier,
Forum for Good Governance (FGG) secretary M Padmanabha Reddy, who filed an RTI
query over pendency of DPT cases, recalled that the liquor scam shook then
undivided state in 2010. “The director general of ACB filed a report in 2012 to
initiate serious action against the accused officials in police and revenue
departments. ACB had recommended action against 132 police officers of
Telangana for their role,” he told TOI.
Reddy
said the then government had referred the cases against 87 officials to DPT.
“But, there is no progress in the case," he added.
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