Finally, corrupt Telangana government staff to face criminal action

Hyderabad: For the first time, the Telangana state government has filed criminal cases against corrupt officers and has initiated disciplinary proceedings against others.

The government has never taken action against corrupt staff in the irrigation, municipal administration and urban development (MAUD), revenue, panchayat raj and rural development departments despite many complaints because it was under pressure from employees’ associations not to do so and had confined itself to issuing ‘warnings’. But with corruption hampering the implementation of government schemes, the state has decided to take action and some 45 employees from the above named departments will face criminal cases.

Orders were issued on January 20 to register cases against 13 engineers in the irrigation department for irregularities in Mission Kakatiya. Eight of the engineers face criminal cases.

Probe on, 42 more staff to face criminal charges
Orders to file criminal cases against 12 employees in MAUD, 15 in the revenue department and five in the panchayati raj and rural development department are expected soon.

The eight engineers who face criminal cases are B. Venkanna, P. Ramesh, L.Y. Ratnam, P. Ravikanth, J. Kishan Naik, N. Suryaprakash, T. Prashanth Kumar and K. Nareen.

Disciplinary proceedings have been ordered against Y. Govardhan Reddy, K. Giridhar, P. Ramasrinivasa Rao, G. Gopal and Ravi.

These engineers were found to have helped contractors siphon off '1.72 crore by certifying their work on Mission Kaka-tiya in Mahbubnagar without checking it for quality. The contractors claimed bills without doing proper work with the help of the officials.

In the municipal admi-nistration and urban development department, 12 staff were found to have violated rules when they gave building approval and allowed illegal construction in Hyderabad, Nizamabad and Warangal districts.

Fifteen officers in the revenue department were found to have allowed the use of fake documents to register assigned land in the city.

Irregularities were detected in disbursement of Aasara pensions with the involvement of five officials in the panchayati raj and rural development department.

“Mission Kakatiya, Aasara pensions, curbing illegal buildings and land registrations remain the top priority of the state government. The Chief Minister took a serious view of corruption affecting the effective implementation of these programmes. He issued directions not to spare anyone resorting to irregularities in these departments and book criminal cases. The vigilance department’s reports on some departments are expected very soon. Based on this, more cases will be booked,” said a CMO source.

Employees associations have been asked not to support corrupt staff as it would send the wrong signal to the public.