Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 13: On the last day of the 16th Lok Sabha today, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also the Minister In-Charge DoPT, said that in the last five years, the Modi Government brought several anti-graft reforms and thus, vindicated its commitment to the policy of “zero tolerance against corruption” through a series of measures.
In reply to a question, Dr Jitendra Singh stated that it was after 30 years that the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was amended to bring a paradigm shift in tackling corruption by introducing several new clauses including the provision to hold bribe giving also a crime and to act against bribe – giver as well.
The practice of conducting interviews for recruitment to Group B (Non-Gazetted) and Group-C posts was done away with, in order to provide a level-playing field and introduce transparency as well as objective selection on the basis of merit. Similarly, the All India Services Rules were amended to provide for strict timeline in the procedure related to disciplinary proceedings.
The reply further stated that the practice of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) was encouraged to facilitate disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the government in a transparent manner, thus reducing the role of middle-men. The implementation of e-tendering in public procurement was also extended.
Premature retirement of officials whose performance was found unsatisfactory was also enabled by invocation of FR-56(j) and the All India Services (Death-cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.
In order to provide transparent citizen-friendly services and to reduce corruption, government procurement through Government e-Market (GeM) procedure was introduced, the reply stated.
In addition, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), as an apex integrity institution, has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to combat corruption through punitive, preventive and participative vigilance. At the same time, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered 1767 corruption cases against 4123 public servants during the years 2016-17 and 2018.
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