Complaints abound on GHMC corruption

Hyderabad: The ACB has caught 20 GHMC officials in 22 months from January 2015 to October for corruption. The GHMC tops the list of corrupt government entities in the city, with most of those arrested being caught red-handed taking bribes or having assets disproportionate to their income.  

ACB records show that most of the officials caught were seniors and had amassed illegal wealth prior to the introduction of transparent administration such as online permissions and collection of property tax and trade licences. The officials are from all departments of the corporation, including garbage transporting wing.

ACB’s deputy superintendant of police, Hyderabad, Vempati Ravi Kumar said that on an average, three complaints against officers were received in a month, “mostly against officials of town planning, health and sanitation, advertising, and collection departments (tax and trade licences).”

He said the details of the complaints were so lengthy that special teams of five or six personnel have to be formed to investigate the illegal assets.

“It is easier to trap GHMC officials as they don’t work through agents like the Road Transport Authority. The maximum complaints are regarding the municipal department. The ratio of GHMC to HMDA is 20:10 in the last 22 months,” Mr Kumar said.

He said that after receiving a complaint, a team is formed to investigate the officer. “By doing this, the ACB will get to know if the complaint is genuine or is a personal grudge. If the complaint is genuine, the ACB, after ground checks, will seek a search warrant from the court and carry out raids at all properties mentioned in the complaint. An officer caught red-handed is arrested and produced before the ACB court and sent to judicial remand,” he said.