BHUBANESWAR: There is a dip in the number of corruption cases registered in Odisha but at the same time, it ranks second in backlog of pending cases. The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report says that registration of corruption cases (trap while accepting bribe, accumulation of disproportionate assets and criminal misconduct) in the State came down to 353 in 2019 from 429 in 2018. However, the number of pending cases to be investigated by police has piled up. In 2019, police had 1,317 pending cases for investigation and another 353 cases were registered under Prevention of Corruption Act in the State last year. A total of 1,493 cases were pending for investigation by the end of 2019. Rajasthan topped the list with 1,694 cases.
This apart, a huge number of corruption cases are pending for trial in various courts of Odisha. As many as 3,352 cases were pending trial in 2019 while another 167 cases were added to the list last year. Maharashtra topped the number of cases pending trial in 2019 with 5,971, Odisha with 3,356 cases and Rajasthan with 3,002 cases.The report claims that departmental action like dismissal was not taken against any Government official in 2019 but 80 were imprisoned or awarded major punishment which was second highest in the country after Tamil Nadu (118).
The corruption cases pertain to those registered by Anti Corruption Bureau, Vigilance and Lokayukta across the country and do not include those by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said the NCRB.
A senior officer from Odisha Vigilance, however, attributed the delay in investigation to insufficient manpower and lack of coordination. They do not have sanctioned strength of officers and staff. There is also inadequate number of prosecutors, he said.
“Our investigation is based mostly on documents and evidence. We need cooperation of other agencies to obtain documents like registration certificate of immovable property which often takes time. Without sufficient manpower, filing of chargesheets at times gets delayed,” he added.
‘No farmer committed suicide in Odisha in 2019’
Bhubaneswar: Not a single farmer or person engaged in farming or cultivation activity in the State committed suicide in 2019, the latest NCRB report says. A total 4,582 suicides were reported in 2019 against 4,592 such incidents in 2018. There report, however, stated that the number of farmers or persons engaged in farming sector as agricultural labourers committed suicide in the previous year was ‘zero’. Apart from Odisha, number of farmer suicide in 2019 was also nil in four other states.
They are Bihar, Manipur, Uttarakhand, West Bengal. Union territories such as Delhi, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu also reported zero farmer suicide last year. The figure, however, remained 1,029 and 499 in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Chhattishgarh respectively. At least 438 farmers having their own land and 190 farmers having lease land committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra remained on top in the list with 3,927 cases.