Set up Joint Parliamentary Committee to monitor economic offences: M R Sivaraman

Chennai: He has a sure solution to India’s high corruption but the Government would not listen to its ex Revenue Secretary M. R. Sivaraman. “I have been pleading, repeatedly to successive governments, my successors in the revenue ministry, the PMO, to have a Joint Parliamentary Committee to monitor all the raids by the Central agencies—ED, CBI, IT, Customs and Central Excise—to ensure that the guilty are properly prosecuted and justice is delivered in quick time. But no luck”, said Sivaraman in a freewheeling interview with DC at his Mylapore apartment here on Tuesday.

“Raids happen amid great media blaze and then after sometime, it all faded out as governments change, ministers change and secretaries change”, Sivaraman said. Only the lower-level handlers of those files stay longer and they get easily and readily compromised, leading to either the files getting dumped in dusty corners to be forgotten or not pushed with vigour before the courts for justice.

“A Parliamentary Committee with its large and wide representation of MPs will ensure that these cases are pursued with vigour and speed, and no compromise is made. If this is not done, the crooks will walk out free and go home laughing at us…the world will continue to laugh at India’s corruption record” Sivaraman said.

“Nirav Modi’s case will also go away like this. This is the worst thing in our system. We don’t have a proper Director for prosecution nor authority to monitor the cases. In my time, as revenue secretary for four years, CBDT and CBEC used to present monthly reports on raids and action taken reports, which were seen by finance minister Manmohan Singh who discussed the cases with me,” he said.