Act on graft complaints against officials within 60 days: PMO

Posted on June 12, 2015 from Delhi, National ι Report #5498

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for a crackdown on corruption, his office has directed all central departments on time-bound action within 60 days to enforce the “rule of law”.

Ministers have been told to sanction prosecution or order disciplinary action within 60 days against officials found to have indulged in act of corruption or misconduct respectively, after a vigilance inquiry.

“The direction is that all such cases be cleared immediately and there should not be any pendency of such cases beyond 60 days,” sources said.

All corruption cases or complaints that have been dangling in departments for reference to the vigilance section are also to be sent for inquiry within the deadline so that an outcome against the alleged offenders is identified and implemented accordingly.

The directive introduces a new norm for officials manning sensitive posts. Sources said each department would have to identify desks handling secret or confidential issues on national and economic security, and annually rotate officials handling them on a pre-decided date.

In sectors and services where public interface is high or which impact the daily affairs of the masses, the direction is that there should be zero-overhang of licence or other applications beyond a prescribed time period.

The PMO has also instructed officials to identify and crack down on areas where middlemen were suspected to be operating, especially in the municipal and urban development sections.

Who is the PMO fooling?

On the one hand, the BJP is doing all that is possible to scuttle investigations by the ACB in Delhi and on the other hand it is taking action which seems to act against corruption.

These are all red herrings.

The elephant has two sets of teeth, one for eating and the other for show.

The above are the teeth to show off.

We have earlier seen what action Modi has taken in Gujarat against corruption.