THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major attempt to prevent corruption at the root level with public participation, the government has rolled out a novel initiative - Vigilant Kerala. The mission, launched by the Vigilance Department, aims to combat corruption in the implementation of projects, through continuous monitoring at different levels, starting from panchayats, municipalities and corporations.
“The effort is to ensure corruption-free project implementation. Instead of taking action after corruption, Vigilant Kerala would ensure public monitoring at each stage so as to avoid corrupt practices. This would also ensure transparency in projects and avoid unnecessary delay,” Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told a press conference here.
A pilot project has already started in 44 panchayats in 8 districts from Ernakulam to Kasargod from last September.The pilot project entered its second phase last month when municipalities andcorporations were also included in theproject.
A seven-level mechanism is being set up to deal with corruption. The first levelincludes those who have to facecorruption at government offices. Each subsequent level will consists of coalitionmembers (those experienced in anti-corruption activities), public workers and officials at panchayats/municipalities, vigilance officials and staff at the districts, district-level vigilance committee members, head of departments, chiefs of various boards and PSUs and top officials and finally officials at the Vigilance headquarters.The public can also post their complaints directly to the Vigilant Kerala website. “The new initiative would reducethe burden on Vigilance and help avoiding flooding of complaints at the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, as these are being handled at seven different levels. At each level, a timeframe of 30 days is given to resolve the issue. Only if they fail, it will go to the next level,” the Home Minister said, adding that ministers and secretaries can monitor the progress of the complaints online. The project would be extended to other panchayats and municipalities soon. A number of people have been identified to work with the initiative at each level. As part of bringing the initiative to more youngsters, social media pages have also been set up at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Speaking at the press conference, Vigilance director Vinson M Paul said the officials would work along with the public in preventing corruption as part of Vigilant Kerala. Not only the localbodies, but projects implemented at various departments including revenue and police would come under the purview of this project.