HYDERABAD: We all know how we felicitate the honest and the hard working citizens! But we rarely name and shame those who are corrupt or have committed similar such acts.
“Let’s tell the world how corrupt a person can be and shame him on a global level. That is why we at Youth Against Corruption, a Hyderabad-based body that fights corruption at all levels, have decided to put forth the recent case as an entry in The Guinness Book of World Records,” says Rajendra Palnati, founder of the 55,000-member strong voluntary group with operations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
“On the 74th Independence day, Santoshi was appointed as a deputy collector. Her husband Colonel Santosh Babu sacrificed his life in the Galwan valley clash. The hero’s soul would have pained to notice a news report the same day about a Mandal Revenue Officer taking a bribe of Rs 1.10 crore in a single stroke. No soldier in the country would want to die fighting for a society which is so corrupt and complacent. Balaraju Nagaraju, a Tahsildar of Keesara, demanded such a brazen amount of money for a single work and actually received Rs 1.1 crore from a citizen.
People just read and forget the news. The entry in Guinness will help us remember such acts,” says Rajendra. When he entered the details, the response from Guinness was, “If you can’t find the record that you want to attempt, then you can suggest a new record title by choosing ‘Apply for a new record title’ an administration fee applies to applications for new record titles.”
It takes up to 12 weeks for applications to be reviewed by Guinness.” December 9 is Anti Corruption Day and Rajendra wants to use the next few months to wake up the citizens against corruption.
His ten-year-old organisation has a wide network of citizens and honest and influential officers as well. “We have 17 IAS and IPS as advisors. Former CBI Joint Director Lakhminarayana to DCP Raghavendra Reddy are all our members.
"We resolve cases either through RTI or through the help of some honest officers,” says Rajendra, who teaches Public Administration at a city college and used run a private hostel pre-Covid-19. The 50,000 members are all WhatsApp users with each district head manning the group. They all discuss problems everyday using their FB page Youth For Anticorruption.