HYDERABAD: As many as 15 per cent of Revenue staff who are facing corruption charges have been reinstated in the department even while cases against them are pending before the court. The tainted officers allegedly managed to get posting orders by lobbying with political leaders and influencing senior officials. According to sources, as many as 2,000 Revenue staff, with their ranks ranging from village revenue officer to Deputy Collector, were caught red-handed while accepting the bribes in the past few years.
In some cases, the officials collected bribe in exchange for issuing passbooks, NOCs or other land-related works. “It is an open secret that most of the staff accept mamools. The applicants sometimes approach the ACB when the staff demand very high amounts of bribes. However, sometimes citizens themselves offer mamools to the staff to get their work done faster. Awareness programmes should be conducted among the staff and citizens to prevent such illegal activities,” said a representative of the revenue employees association.
Of the 2,000 staff caught for bribery, at least 300 employees and officials were reinstated into the department even though bribery cases were still pending at the courts. The government also allowed them to be reinstated into their posts. The number of such officials in various districts are 15 in Hyderabad, 25 in Rangareddy, 35 in Medchal-Malkajgiri, 50 in Medak, 80 in Mahbubnagar and 100 in Karimnagar. Senior officials said the government has powers to reinstate the tainted staff based on vigilance reports.