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This is an archive article published on February 29, 2000

Bank, PSU officials may be on CVC website

BANGALORE, FEB 28: The Chief Vigilance Commission is likely to put on its website names of officials of banks, public sector undertakings ...

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BANGALORE, FEB 28: The Chief Vigilance Commission is likely to put on its website names of officials of banks, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and postal services facing corruption charges.

“Everything will come. Nobody will be left out”, Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal told PTI here Monday night. “Maybe bank people… public sector people… and services like postal (sic)”.

Vittal was responding to a question on the CVC’s new initiatives after putting on its website names of 23 officials of the Indian Forest Service (IFS) last week.

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He said the CVC putting names of officials facing corruption charges was not a `publicity stunt’ and that he sincerely wanted to see India become a corruption-free country.

Vittal brushed aside criticism from certain quarters that he was exceeding his powers, saying the CVC putting names on the website was covered by the April 4, 1995 notification, under which the CVC works.

“The website has shown that there has been enormous delayon the part of government departmental action, which will mean either inefficiency or, worse, protection to people who are charged”, he said.

Vittal said as a follow-up of Website Publications, he had written to all secretaries, chairpersons of banks and public enterprises that the website had revealed that there had been enormous delay in follow-up action on the advice of the CVC.

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“Every month, I will be sending details of `first stage advice’ and `second stage advice’ so that heads of departments can initiate follow-up action”, he said. “Our goal is to see that disciplinary proceedings are completed in six months”.

He said he had also written to 60 Central Government departments as well as the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Shanta Kumar, and Union Minister for Administrative Reforms Arun Shourie stating that a clause must be added in the `Citizen’s Charter’ that, “all the above services will be available corruption-free” so that it becomes the right of citizens to get corruption-free service.

Vittal said CVC was hoping to meet this week to examine whether to ask the government to bring in the `Corrupt Public Servants Forfeiture of Property Act’ on a priority basis, in view of the government’s policy of zero-tolerance of corruption.

He explained that the Act was drafted in the 167th report of the Law Commission to increase the risk of the corrupt and plug loopholes in the system.

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The CVC, Vittal said, was also examining whether the 589 Chief Vigilance Officers, who were in different departments, could be given police powers so that they could arrange for trapping the corrupt

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