Thiruvananthapuram : Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked the Vigilance and Anti-Corr-uption Bureau to take steps to end the corruption in the education sector. “Corrup-tion is rampant in admissions right from pre-primary schools to professional colleges,” he said inaugurating the Vigilance Awareness Week celebrations of VACB here on Wednesday.
“Huge donations of Rs 5 lakh and more are being demanded for admissions. Is it not corruption? Educational institutions are becoming profit-making centres. This tendency started mainly after the self-financing professional colleges came up,” he said.
“If the Vigilance keeps a watch on the corruption in the education sector, there will be change. The support of the public is also essential for this,” Mr. Vijayan said.
He directed the VACB to conduct awareness activities to prevent corruption. The people should realise that giving bribe could also attract legal action.
Since the corrupt were now using electronic tools, the VACB officials were being imparted training in advanced technologies, he said. Already, cyber cells were constituted in Thiru-vananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. Steps to modernise and digitise the VACB were also progressing, he said.
Vigilance director B.S. Muhammed Yasin, VACB IG H. Venkatesh, additional chief secretary (home and vigilance) Sabratha Bisw-as, law secretary B.G. Har-eendranath, former judge of Kerala High Court, justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair, and additional director of prosecution K.D. Babu also spoke.
Centre flayed for CBI ‘coup’
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the overnight change of CBI director made by the Centre has sent a wrong signal. “Amid the row over the Rafale deal the Centre changed CBI director and top officials through a midnight operation that resembled a coup. It was highly unprecedented. This has sent wrong signals,” the Chief Minister said in his inaugural address of Vigilance Awareness Week celebrations here on Wednesday.
Mr. Vijayan also alleged that the due processes for appointing and removing CBI director were not followed by the centre.
Anti-corruption agencies need to be allowed to work freely. But such actions of the government would keep the officers of anti-corruption agencies on tenter hooks, he said adding that the state government never interfered with the activities of the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau.
