Odisha must sharpen anti-corruption vigil
The Odisha government’s anti-corruption bureau is making waves. In the month that just went by, it searched the premises of the joint manager of Idcol, a state PSU which was long divested. The executive was found to own cash estimated at a staggering `1 crore, besides other assets. The state vigilance teams had a tough time calculating the money parked in over a dozen bank accounts the public servant maintained. Days later, the agency raided the deputy collector of a district whose wealth stood close to 200% over his rightful earnings. He and his family had over seven properties and at least 11 plots in their names.
One look at the vigilance wing’s achievement would show it booked 200 government officials for alleged corruption last year. In 2021, the state logged the highest number of disproportionate asset cases in the country, and the same feat is likely to be repeated the following year. In short, the Odisha government’s strident stand against corruption and those indulging in it is laudable. CM Naveen Patnaik’s “zero tolerance to corruption” remains one of the pillars of his clean and transparent governance. At least 187 public servants across the administrative hierarchy have been dismissed or served compulsory retirements, leaving the state’s corrupt babus quivering in their boots.
Yet the tainted continue to raise their ugly heads in the top echelons of the administration. At least 20% of those booked by vigilance last year were Class-I officers, and their number is rising year on year. The fact that more and more babus find themselves in the net certainly points to the government’s intent to act against the corrupt. Still, at the same time, it also reveals that the system is relentlessly breeding dishonesty at the top of the pyramid, which must worry the administration. The disproportionate assets that the state vigilance had unearthed in 2021 were pegged at Rs 107 crore, which jumped to over Rs 174 crore last year. Anti-corruption agencies can perform the task of an enforcer or, at best, a watchdog, but the real problem lies in the system. That the internal vigilance mechanism of administrative departments and their respective wings are dotted with holes is not a happy state of affairs. And the government must do a clean job of it.