Will Chandrababu Naidu go after corrupt politicos?

You can’t root out corruption in administration just by targeting small fries without addressing political corruption. Can he initiate inquiry against his ministers facing allegations of economic offences?
The Andhra Pradesh government has pressed into service a magic wand called, ‘The People First,’ to fight corruption in governance in the last week of May. The initiative provides for a toll-free no. 1100, enabling victims of corruption to register their complaints over phone.

The government claims that it is doing miracles by showing up results within a fortnight. Incredible it may sound, the money paid as bribes literally came calling right up to the doorsteps of petitioners as the tainted personnel returned the amounts soon after receipt of complaints over the toll-free number, according to official claims. It happened in a dozen cases as per the official claims.

The state-sponsored anti-graft campaign triggered a massive debate over the incidence of corruption in the governance. Noticeably, the first day of the government’s Nava Nirmana Deeksha in Visakhapatnam city saw a debate on corruption in the corridors of power hardly a week after the launch of the ‘People First’ Initiative.

Roads and Buildings Minister Ch Ayanna Patrudu sought to expose `stinking’ corruption in government, saying an officer in the rank of Engineer-in-Chief in a department earned Rs 140 crore while a Tahsildar earned Rs 40 crore. Then the land scam involving 500 acres worth Rs 1,000 crore surfaced in Visakhapatnam district around the same time, bringing to light the nexus between the officials and the ruling party leaders.

The TDP came to power in Andhra Pradesh a decade after political hibernation with a promise to provide a spotless administration. The party leader and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu claims that the famed anti-graft campaigner Anna Hazare is his role model in his mission to cleanse the stables.

The government is at its best using technology as a tool to fight corruption and ensure transparency in delivery of citizen services in line with the Naidu’s vision. He openly stated at Collectors conferences quite often that the revenue, the police and the stamps and registration department earned notoriety for corruption.

The data available with the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) reveals that the cases relating to acquisition of wealth disproportionate to known sources of income involving government personnel is on the rise in the last three years of the TDP rule, defying the Naidu’s anti-graft mission.

A Mohan, Deputy Transport Commissioner (DTC), with properties worth Rs 800 crore from Kakinada, followed by Gangadhar, Engineer-in-Chief from the R&B department, owning Rs 150 crore assets, trapped by the ACB in the recent past, topped the list of tainted government personnel.

Will the “magic wand” really help Naidu cleanse the stables by striking at the very root? M Padmanabha Reddy, Secretary, Forum for the Good Governance, a Hyderabad-based civil society organisation, expressed doubts over its efficacy. “You can’t root out corruption in administration just by targeting small fries without addressing political corruption,” he said.

Besides, the official agencies like the Tribunal for Disciplinary Proceedings (TDP) and the Commissioner of Inquiries are badly in need of an overhaul in their functioning. The tribunal established to try the graft cases is plagued by lack of judges for more than a decade, leading to pendency of cases for more than two decades, he said.

The Commissioner of Inquiries took 20 years time to take action against an officer in Joint Director cadre in the Agriculture department who is accused of embezzling World Bank funds. If the official agencies function like this, how anyone could instill confidence in the public over clean administration, Reddy asked.

The forum invented a new definition for the acronym EPC as engineer- politician-contractor (nexus) in the wake of the irrigation department being steeped in corruption in execution of projects. The so-called EPC nexus will be active in overpricing the projects and the Polavaram project with its cost escalated up to Rs 40,000 crore from Rs 16,000 crore in a span of one year is a case in point, it is alleged.

T Lakshminarayana, a political observer, emphasised the need for Naidu to set an example by acting tough on political corruption. In a bid to drive his point home, he cited the involvement of his cabinet colleague Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Union Minister Y S Chowdary of his party in cases relating to economic offences

Land mafia, sand mafia and financial frauds involving banks upset the Naidu’s applecart vis-à-vis cleansing the stables, he commented. “After all, politics has become commercialised, so also the elections. Obviously, the rot spreads to the administration and the malady could not be addressed without cleansing politics,” Lakshminarayana said.