Chennai: While corruption continues to be the prime subject of discussion in any public forum, the number of convictions against corrupt officials in Tamil Nadu has drastically reduced in the past three years.
According to former Madras high court judge, Justice K. Chandru, corruption has gone to the next level and scientific corruption is visible.
To enhance the number of bookings and convictions, the definition of corruption has to be rewritten and the existing acts have to be amended, he said. At present, corruption is based on demand and acceptance and during prosecution, the demand and acceptance has to be proved.
This is a twin twist and it fails to protect the identity of whistleblowers, the judge explained. Further, corruption cases are take too much time and the departments, though vested with powers, fail to take action and wait for stay orders and final orders.
In my opinion DVAC is a soft mechanism that targets mostly the small fry, Mr Chandru added.
“For the level of corruption that is omnipresent the vigilance raids are peanuts and in most of the cases, only government staff of lower ranks are booked.
For instance, city corporation and metro water engineers are often booked by DVAC, but not once any IAS officer or a chief engineer has been booked,” said RTI activist V. Gopalakrishnan.
