State Vigilance Commission seems to have suddenly become active and authoritative in pointing out a litany of irregularities that have crept into the administrative structure of the State. This is a good sign of accountability being made to work as it should. People feel satisfied that the SVC is not prepared to spare anybody if it is able to find fault with him in public dealings. Some departments in general but that of the Social Welfare in particular has been singled out for widespread administrative irregularities. Director Vigilance has revealed that most of the cases pertain to illegalities committed in disbursement of scholarships to students, pension to aged under National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), payments being made to widows and the destitute under National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and Integrated Social Security Scheme and procurement of supplementary nutrition for children.
The Vigilance Commission has very rightly recommended to the Government to implement Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) which will do away with the middleman between the beneficiary and the donor. At the same time a very effective and meaningful measure proposed by the SVC is that the departments should place all information on their departmental website which is a major step towards ensuring transparency. Nobody should be under the illusion that our State is much below other States in corruption graph. This is not a matter of comparison; it is a social evil and an unpardonable aberration which has to be uprooted lock, stock and barrel. All that people of the State want is that the culprits and corrupt functionaries should be brought to book.