Vigilance director N C Asthana restores supervisory role

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 31 circulars issued by former Vigilance director Jacob Thomas have been scrapped by the present Vigilance director N.C. Asthana. Many of the circulars pertained to giving powers to the heads of various units of VACB to initiate probes and even register cases on the petitions received by them.  According to Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) sources, these circulars were found to be contradictory with the Vigilance manual especially since it takes away the supervisory powers of the senior officials of the bureau.

Moreover, a review of the circulars also found that the provision could be easily misused by officials at the VACB units to frame Vigilance cases against innocent persons to settle personal scores. Incidentally, the decision to scrap the circulars issued by the former Vigilance director was taken by Mr. Asthana hardly a few days  ahead of leaving the  service. Mr. Asthana would be relieved  on May 31 to join the Border Security Force as additional director general.

Vigilance sources said that almost all circulars of Mr Jacob Thomas pertaining to internal functioning of the VACB were cancelled while only those pertaining to general directives like awareness creation against corruption and strengthening of vigilance cell of public sector undertakings were retained.