VIJAYAWADA: Cracking the whip on errant officials at tahsildar offices, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) carried out raids in all 13 districts of the State on Friday and found unaccounted cash worth Rs 4 lakh. Officials were also caught indulging in various irregularities.
Acting on the instructions of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to rid the State of corruption, ACB DG PSR Anjaneyulu ordered district officers to conduct surprise checks on 21 tahsildar offices.
ACB sleuths seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 42,000 and 38 title deed-cum-e-passbooks from Krishna district. In Visakhapatnam, they found unaccounted cash worth Rs 43,000 and sought an explanation on why officials rejected 1,686 mutation applications and why 141 were kept pending.
The sleuths found that many MeeSeva applications were kept pending and some were rejected without valid reasons. Officials further failed to maintain a register mentioning why applications were rejected.
A large number of title deed-cum-e-passbooks were found to have been kept pending with deputy tahsildars and village revenue officers. "Instead of giving them to beneficiaries, the officers kept them. This could lead to them demanding bribes," an ACB official said.
It was also observed that tahsildars appointed unauthorised persons to do official work. Further, they did not follow mandatory practices such as maintaining mutation, inward and movement registers. On interacting with the ACB officials, petitioners complained that officials made them run from pillar to post and kept their petitions pending without any valid reason.
The ACB officials inspected two tahsildar offices in Krishna district (Avanigadda and Thotlvallur), two in Visakhapatnam (Bheemili and Sabbavaram), three in Guntur (Nadendla, Bhattiprolu, Macherla), two in Srikakulam (Etcherla and Kottur), two in West Godavari (Pedapudi, Peddapuram), two in Nellore (Sullurpeta, Kavali), one in Prakasam (Ponnalur), one in Chittoor (Vadamalpet), one in Anantapur (Mudigubba), one in Kadapa (Brahmamgiri), one in West Godavari (Chitalapudi) and one in Kurnool (Kallur).
ACB DG Anjaneylu requested the public to complain about bribe demands on the toll-free number ‘14400’, and said officials are organising awareness campaigns across the State.