Corrupt babus back with a bang

Corrupt babus back with a bang
State Govt Promotes 25 Tainted Officials Following AP Tribunal’s Decision
Jinka Nagaraju | TNN

Hyderabad: How serious is the state government in combating corruption in its ranks is displayed by the fact that the AP Administrative Tribunal recently directed the state to promote 25 officials who were facing charges of corruption, on the grounds that the enquiry against them is taking years to complete.
“It is very simple. Once an official is caught, he is suspended and his promotion put on hold pending completion of the enquiry. The tainted officials then bring in political pressure to delay the probe by the ACB or the vigilance department. Then they move the tribunal contending how they are being denied promotions due to the delay on the part of the state in completing the probe. The tribunal then directs the state to promote these officials,” one official said.
The 25 officials who have benefited in this manner are from the various municipalities in the state, government and police departments.
Fifteen of them are municipal commissioners while the others are of the rank of joint director, additional commissioner, additional superintendent of police and grade-1 municipal commissioners. “Promote the officials without prejudice or reference to the charges against them,” the tribunal said in its order. Following the orders of the tribunal, many of these officials have already been promoted while others are in the process of getting it. The officials include 14 grade-1 municipal commissioners, namely P Nagaveni, B Nagabhusanam, D Jayaraj Kennedy, N Satyanarayana, G Krishnaiah, Y Sai Srikanth, D Jayaraju, S Srinivasa Reddy, K Ramesh, P Balakrishna, S Annapurna, N Ravikiran, C Ramakrishna Rao and MSS Somaraju.
The 15th municipal commissioner, Mohammed Mukthar-Uz-Zaman, retired recently but will be still eligible for enhanced retirement benefits because of the promotion.
All these officials have been charged either with possessing disproportionate assets by the ACB or facing vigilance cases for committing financial irregularities or misusing funds causing loss to the government.
Sources told TOI that in most of the cases, the department concerned has shown no interest in challenging the tribunal order. On the contrary, more such promotions based on its directive are in the offing, they added.
Thus, in an irony of sorts, while the ACB and the vigilance wings have been catching more babus on charges of corruption each passing year, the state is ending up protecting them. According to ACB sources, in 2005, only nine cases were booked. “It rose to 48 in 2005, 61 in 2006 and 78 in 2007,” they said.

Source : TOI Hyderabad Edition 29 Dec 2008