Former CVC Vittal backs Thomas

Meeting called to empower citizens combat corruption is marred by poor attendance.

Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas,at the centre of a political storm over his appointment and the subject of a Supreme Court hearing of a petition seeking his removal,today received the backing of N Vittal,the countrys first CVC,who expressed confidence that Thomas would emerge unscathed from the controversy.

Integrity is not at all an issue. Thomas has an excellent record. He had been cleared for empanelment to the Government of India8230; So as an officer,who has a record and has come through the whole selection,I think it will be largely wrong to cast any aspersion on the integrity or the personality of Thomas, Vittal told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on Empowering Citizens to Combat Corruption,organised by the Central Vigilance Commission and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Thomas,on his part,stuck to a prepared speech,saying corruption in the Indian context can be classified into two categories collusive corruption and coercive corruption8230; corruption cannot be fought merely through government efforts and requires the participation of all stakeholders in the governance process.

Mobbed by the media after his speech,Thomas declined comment. Later,at a press conference to explain the new CVC portal Project VigEye,he was asked about the 2G scam. The matter is sub judice. I have no comment on that, he said.

December 9 is observed as International Anti-Corruption Day but attendance at this anti-corruption meeting in the Capital the inauguration was followed by panel discussions,attended by chief vigilance officers of public sector undertakings was very poorly attended.

Most PSU Chairmen and Secretary-level bureaucrats chose to give the event a miss. And only three NGOs turned up for a meet on finding methods to empower citizens. Even the media rows were empty.

Shekhar Gupta,Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express and a panelist in the session on Engagement of Civil Society in addressing Corruption,said that discretionary powers of politicians must be curbed,so that citizens will no longer need to knock at their doors for legitimate rights.

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Break the nexus between the poor voter and the corrupt politician, Gupta said,adding that the results of the Bihar Assembly elections was reason for optimism.

Project VigEye,the CVC portal where citizens can upload multimedia photos,videos and documents about wrongdoings by government officials was launched by Vittal. Users can also register and access the portal 182.18.181.234/vigeye using mobile phones by sending an empty SMS to 09223174440.

After inaugurating the portal and registering himself,Vittal warned that even a well-meaning idea like VigEye could turn the CVC into a post office if complaints are not acted upon.

Stating that the single directive system,whereby the CBI must take permission of the parent department of a Joint Secretary-and-upward-level bureaucrat before initiating an inquiry,is against Article 14 of the Constitution,Vittal called for its abolition.

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He made a strong case for considering the bribe-giver as culpable as a corrupt official. Under the Prevention of Corruption Act,the focus is only on the bribe-taking government servant. What about the bribe-giver?8230; Corruption is like two hands clapping. Only in Zen Buddhism,you can think of one-hand clapping. Our Prevention of Corruption Act is based on the Zen principle of one-hand clapping, he said.

Modernising the Vigilance Framework was another topic discussed by a panel that included A K Balyan,Managing Director of Petronet,and S K Sarkar,Additional Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training. SAIL Chairman C S Verma spoke at length on his efforts to bring about transparency using technology.