When a new year nears, government departments share progress reports showcasing their achievements. Telangana’s Anti-Corruption Bureau recently did the same. The ACB stated that it booked 199 cases across various departments and arrested 273 officials through 2025, compared to 223 embroiled in 154 cases in 2024. The increase of more than a fifth in indictments sounds impressive, but in truth the numbers hide a frightening reality.
According to civil society groups and experts, these numbers account for barely a twentieth of the corrupt in the massive apparatus that is the government. Over the past decade, about 1,400 cases have been registered, but in the absence of proper data, experts estimate that only 150-200 have led to conviction. By the admission of officers themselves, most cases fall flat due to denial of permission by the departments concerned. Delays in granting sanction for prosecution are also well known. According to the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, the clearance should come within 120 days and an official’s suspension should be reviewed within 90 days. The Supreme Court has ruled that if the review does not take place within the stipulated period, the official must be reinstated. We agree that the court and the law upheld principles of natural justice in deciding so. But several Telangana officials caught red-handed have used the rule to get reinstated; some of them were even apprehended again. In 2025, a number of cases raised eyebrows for the huge properties the allegedly corrupt had amassed—a dubious list that includes a deputy collector, a municipal commissioner and an executive engineer.
As the country aspires to be developed by 2047, we must ask ourselves for how long can we bear the massive burden of corruption. Studies have shown that the sight of corrupt peers going scot-free propel more greed. What could be done to stem this deep rot? For a start, governments need to re-examine anti-corruption laws and rules to increase deterrence. Cases, which now take years, must be expedited. Those in charge of government departments must make swift prosecution a non-negotiable pledge. We must make ending the menace of government corruption one of the central pillars of the New India we are dreaming of.