Thiruvananthapuram: Administrative Reforms Commission Chairman V.S. Achuthanandan on Thursday submitted the first report to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The report recommended setting up of State Vigilance Commission on the lines of central vigilance commission and an independent investigation agency like CBI. The ARC chairman handed over the report to the Chief Minister at the latter’s office in Assembly complex. In departure from the practice of submitting the report at the end of the tenure, the Achuthanandan panel submitted its first report on the eve of completion of its first year in office.
The proposed agencies are aimed at making the government machinery and administrative setup transparent and corruption free. The highlights of the major recommendations of the commission; Statutory powers for proposed State Vigilance Commission and Vigilance and Bureau for independent functioning. State vigilance commission set up to have sitting High Court judge or retired judge as chairman, other members to be officials who have held the posts of chief secretary or additional chief secretary, DGP or ADGP. It will be a three member commission.
Putting in place an effective system to book corrupt officials, irrespective of their high position. Check frivolous and false complaints against officials to tarnish the image of honest officials. Cases to be registered only if there is prima facie evidence. The cases being investigated by the vigilance directorate would be supervised by the state vigilance commission. The commission had earlier decided to conduct detailed study on some of contemporary issues confronting the state which include increasing atrocities on women, inadequate facilities for waste disposal, challenges in health sector and the limitations of Right to Service Act. These would be taken up on priority.
The ARC believed that these were directly related to the people and were being widely discussed in the public domain. The commission is examining the ways to seek public opinion on these issues. Discussions happening on the social networking sites, write-ups and inputs from media persons would be utilised for this purpose. The commission felt that through administrative reforms the gravity of many of these problems could be reduced. Departmental committees had been constituted to pave the way for administrative reforms.
