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‘No matter how powerful…’: PM Modi's firm message on corruption
Prime Minister Modi suggested continuous monitoring of criminal cases and asked to devise a way of ranking departments on the basis of pending corruption cases and publishing the related reports on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for “zero tolerance” against corruption saying the agencies and officials acting against the corrupt and corruption need not fear or be defensive while doing their work. Addressing an event at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi to mark the ongoing vigilance awareness week, Prime Minister Modi said that corrupt should not escape "at any cost" and they should not get political or social protection.
"Corruption is an evil we must stay away from...we have been trying to change the system made by 'abhaav' (lack) and 'dabaav' (pressure) in the last 8 years," he said.
Noting a worrying trend, the Prime Minister said “we have seen that many times the corrupt people are glorified despite being jailed even after being proven to be corrupt."
"This situation is not good for Indian society. Even today, some people give arguments in favour of the corrupt who have been found guilty. It is very necessary for such people, such forces to be made aware of their duty by society.”
He encouraged law enforcement agencies to not buckle under pressure from the powerful in taking action against the corrupt.
“No matter how powerful the corrupt may be, they should not be saved under any circumstances, it is the responsibility of organisations like you. No corrupt person should get political-social support, every corrupt person should be put in the dock by the society, it is also necessary to create this environment”, he said.
The prime minister also suggested that a ranking of government departments on anti-corruption efforts should be done and pending cases of corruption against officials decided in good time.
"We need to finalise disciplinary proceedings against government officials on mission mode," he said.
Anti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is organising a vigilance awareness week from October 31 to November 6, on the theme 'corruption-free India for a developed nation', to further promote probity in public life. The prime minister also launched a 'complaint management system' portal of the CVC that allows citizens to raise corruption complaints digitally, besides checking their progress in a user-friendly way.
