Hyderabad, January 01: Revenue department continues to be the most corrupt department followed by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Transport, Home, Panchayati Raj and Social Welfare. A majority of babus have been caught by the Anti-Corruption Bureau from these departments either for possessing disproportionate assets or accepting bribes among other irregularities, sources say.
Out of the 424 officials caught on the charges of corruption in 2010 by the ACB, 64.23 percent were convicted.
Giving details of the ACB cases in 2010, officials said 44 accused were found guilty and dismissed from service. In 2009, 52 officials were dismissed from the service while 178 officials were caught while accepting money.
Eighty-one officials were caught for possessing disproportionate assets worth Rs 88.28 crore. Forty of them had assets worth between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore. Twenty-five tainted officials were found possessing disproportionate assets valued in the range of Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore. One officer had assets worth more than Rs 5 crore.
“The basic aim for laying traps by the bureau is to impact the grass-root level corruption which makes the life of the common man miserable.
People are dependent on government functionaries at the grass-root level, even for basic needs like drinking water, housing, education and health. Collection of money illegally from the public by government staff for performing their normal duties has become a common phenomenon,” ACB director general Umesh Kumar said.
Some of big fish who were nailed for possessing disproportionate assets in 2010 were Ranga Reddy district joint collector M Jagan Mohan (assets `3.8 crore), AP Legislative Assembly special secretary Koneti Gopala Krishna (Rs 15 crore) and director of Urban Forestry, GHMC G Krishna Murthy (Rs 4 crore).
–Agencies