05 February,2011 06:45 AM IST | | Poornima Swaminathan
At a time when scandals have come to define governance, state ACB has aggregated 15 raids at Mantralaya in the past 15 years, reveals an RTI inquiry
Despite the mess of scandals, involving babu-neta nexus, splattered all across the state and the newsprint, it appears that the Anti Corruption Bureau hasn't found much reason to get all worked up.
An RTI enquiry has revealed that Maharashtra Police's ACB, supposedly the state government's eyes and ears instrumental in containing corruption, has managed to conduct some 15 raids in the last 15 years at Mantralaya.
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Thus, averaging a steady performance of one raid per year, which hasn't done much to uproot, expose or restrain the deep-rooted graft in the system, activists believe.
"With several scandals, including the Adarsh Society scam, exposing top-level corruption in the government, it is surprising that the agency is taking it so leniently," said Mehul Kataria, the RTI activist who filed for the details last month. "I was shocked to know that there were just 15 raids in 15 years," he added.
Moreover, all of the raids involved bribery cases where complainants alleged that officials demanded money to divest duties incumbent upon them by virtue of their office.
The last raid conducted was about a year ago when the ACB sleuths ensnared three officials for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 after harassing the complainant.
Although, Mantralaya sources furnished an explanation as to why the number of raids is incommensurate with the scams that have unravelled.
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According to them, the Mantralaya's insistence on strictly detailed checking delays any visitors from entering, as they have to go through intense security procedures.
This gives officials around 15-20 minutes to be alerted by the time a raiding team can catch hold of them. Post 26/11 attacks, the vigil inside the Mantralaya has been stepped up even more.
"There could have been instances where officials got a whiff of an impending raid or trap, and quickly changed their mind or moved to another location by the time ACB officials could reach them," said a source.
Anyhow, officials stated that despite corrupt activities being rampant in the bureaucracy, there are not many complaints.
The Other Side
Despite repeated attempts, Niket Kaushik, additional commissioner of police, Maharashtra ACB, could not be reached.
