If you walk into the Civil Station at Kakkanad, you could see five people, including sexagenarians, exhorting all those arriving at the Collectorate to strictly ask for an acknowledgment slip for any kind of transactions they undertake at any of the government departments.
They have taken up it as their mission to put an end to the menace of corruption and the first major step in this direction is to ask people to keep a record of every activity they undertake at the government departments. They work under the banner of the Anti-corruption People’s Movement, which may not be known to many, but it diligently worked to introduce the revolutionary Right to Service (RTS) Act in 2012 which had been eluding the state.
“Getting an acknowledgment slip for any communication with the government departments is the right of the citizen. Unfortunately, many of them are clueless on it. Hence, we decided to throw light on this matter to help the public,” said Advocate John Joseph, vice- president, Anti- corruption People’s Movement.
The organisation includes many retired officials too. B C Cyriac, who was the additional Chief Secretary in the Tamil Nadu Government is its president. M K Rejendran, senior advocate at the Kerala High Court and V P G Marar, retired Professor, St Albert’s College, are the other office-bearers. The organisation has already conducted camps and committees in this regard across the state. But the dearth of any real time activities pushed them to set up a help desk at the Collectorate and in front of the Kochi Corporation. They had submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister with eight demands in 2011.
In an attempt to commence real-time activities, they have submitted a memorandum to the District Collector and to the Kochi Corporation.