Graft check: Telangana's Revenue department clocks maximum complaints on anti-corruption helpline

In the last four years, the Chief Minister’s special helpline to report corruption cases received a whopping 7,558 calls.
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)
For representational purposes (Express Illustrations)

HYDERABAD:  Will the State ever see a reduction in complaints of corruption? An RTI response doesn’t suggest a very positive answer to the question. A series of queries made by RTI activist Robin Zaccheus has revealed that in the four years of its operation, the chief minister’s special helpline number to report corruption cases, received a whopping 7,558 calls - which is nearly five complaints per day.

The number of calls made to this anti-corruption helpline - 040-23454071, which was launched in January 2015 - seem to have been on an up-down curve with every passing year. In its launch year, 2015, the number received close to 3,427 calls. This reduced to less than half in 2016 with 1,282 calls, and further dropped in 2017, to 839 calls, possibly indicating either improved vigilance or fizzing out of its popularity. However, in 2018, it recorded a spike in the number of complaints, with 2,040 calls with complaints of corruption by officials.

The RTI also finds that the department with the most corruption charges levelled against it was the revenue department with close to 3,006 complaints in the last four years. This was followed by general corruption charges against miscellaneous bodies at 1,000. The police department stood third with 635 complaints. 

The data comes as no surprise with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao stating in a press conference only a month ago that a new anti-corruption law was needed to streamline workings of the revenue department. 
A user can anonymously report an official who has asked for money and the call centre then, either links the caller to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) or takes it up with higher officials.

The data has also found that Warangal was the city which was most aware of its rights and actively raised a voice against corrupt officials with close to 1,105 calls made in the past four years. 

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