PIL: Implement vigilance report

Hyderabad: Forum for Good Governance has moved a PIL in the High Court challenging the action of Telangana government in not making any efforts to either vet the recommendations of the Vigilance Commission or place the reports along with their action taken reports before the state legislature. The Forum, represented by its secretary M. Padmanabha Reddy, moved the PIL stating that Vigilance Commission (VC) is an independent advisory body specially formed to deal with prevention of corruption among public servants.

He told the court that after an inquiry into a transaction in which any public servant is suspected to have acted in a corrupt manner the reports of the Vigilance Commission are sent to the general administration department with its remarks. The state government takes the reports as an advisory and has the discretion whether to accept or reject the report. He told the court that in most of the reports the commission had recommended serious action against corrupt government officials who were involved in serious embezzlement of government funds causing loss to the state's exchequer.

He contended that if no action was taken on the reports, the purpose of setting up the Vigilance Commission would get defeated. He told the court that, as per information sought under the RTI Act, the last report placed before the state legislature was for 1995-96. Vigilance reports for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 were under examination for placing them before the Telangana state Legislative Assembly, he said.

The petitioner alleged that the government was not placing the commission reports before the state legislature, to protect tainted government officials. He urged that the court direct the government to place all pending reports of the Vigilance Commission along with action taken reports, particularly for the year 2014-15 and 2015-16, before the state legislature in the next Assembly session for discussion and action.

SHRC seeks info on workers’ bodies:

The State Human Rights Commission has directed the ministry of external affairs to submit a report by December 14 on the status of bringing the bodies of five Telangana workers killed in a fire in Abu Dhabi on October 19. Their family members submitted a petition to the commission. The victims were Pitla Naresh, 25, from Kamareddy, Malavath Prakash Naik, 29, from Nirma, G. Akhilesh, 22, from Nirmal, Bairi Gangaraju, 20, from Nirmal and Tota Rakesh, 32, from Nizamabad. They were engaged by Gulf Dunes Landscaping & Agricultural Services Company in Abu Dhabi.

Family members of the victims said that even after completion of 44 days and the Telangana government giving assurances about bringing back their bodies there is not much progress in the issue. Industries and NRI affairs minister K.T. Rama Rao also issued a statement saying that the state government will take steps to help the kin of victims who died in Abu Dhabi fire accident and bring back their bodies.

Prakash Naik had returned to India after working for around two years, said his brother Subash Naik. “But as the financial situation at home was still the same and there was drought in the area, he went to work again for some more time, but lost his life in this tragedy,” he said. Family members of other victims also have similar stories of suffering and are waiting for the bodies of their beloved ones.

Eleven other workers were also killed in the accident that occurred while they were sleeping. The workers’ living facility had 32 rooms on two floors. Those who died were in room numbers 17, 20 and 30. The fibre door of room number 17 caught fire when a tube light developed short circuit. The fire spread in seconds as all the beds were made of foam. “Many workers escaped but Naresh in room 17, Gangaraju in room 20 and the other three in room 30 died on the spot. We have minor injuries,” a worker said.