Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh recently moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into the alleged corrupt practices followed by his erstwhile super boss, the Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh. He alleged that the minister had called meetings with some of the officers reporting to him, at his residence, and given them a target of collecting Rs 100 crore every month from individuals and establishments such as hotels, restaurants, bars and shops. This is the story of just a few cops in Mumbai, leaving other departments in Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra aside.

Transparency International, a global watchdog for corruption ranked India the 86th most corrupt country in 2020, out of 179 countries, according to perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.

In our system of governance, deviants and criminals manage to move up the echelons of political or even bureaucratic power because the state apparatus and its appendages, meant to arrest and nip corruption in the bud, are not geared to do so. Once the corrupt come to occupy positions of power, they also tend to manipulate laws and policies, and ensure that oversight of institutions such as the police is carried out in accordance with their interests. In such a scenario, forms of corruption get institutionalised, leading to wholesale criminalisation of the state with disastrous consequences for the public at large. 

The ‘Vazegate’ scandal is an example of such a scenario. Addressing corruption in the public sphere is therefore essential to ensure the legitimacy of the state, maintain public order and the rule of law, and maintain public trust in the state and its institutions. To achieve that, it’s imperative that the structures and institutions established to curb corruption have proper physical and human resource infrastructure, proper mentoring, motivation and recognition, and of course regular training of the personnel in new and emerging investigation procedures, including the use of ever-evolving IT tools.

How the technological breakthrough of DNA fingerprinting heralded a new paradigm in investigating heinous crimes may remind us not to neglect the whole new array of tools and apps that are commonplace in other walks of contemporary life. What had originally emerged as a method used to distinguish an individual from another, using a sample of one’s DNA’s unique patterns, was first employed in a criminal investigation in 1987 by the British police. This technique was developed in 1985 in the laboratory of the University of Leicester, Great Britain, just a few miles off the scene of the crime, where two teenage girls had been raped and murdered by a serial killer. The police had rounded up a 17-year-old mentally challenged boy, as the main suspect. However, DNA sampling not only proved the boy innocent, but also led to the real culprit, thus preventing a grave miscarriage of justice. Soon the investigative potential of the technique was recognised and rapidly embraced by police forces around the world, leading to the conviction of perhaps tens of thousands of criminals over the world.

By law, every state government in India has established anti-corruption bureaus or vigilance directorates. These bureaus/directorates have the express mandate to work for preventive vigilance apart from probing matters relating to corruption in the public sphere. This is where the latest in IT and science needs to find its way through the tools and techniques for intelligence gathering and investigative procedures that are swift, sure and empirically verifiable. A legal framework through the acts of 1860 and 1988 is already in place. What is required now is the enforcement of these laws in spirit and not just in letter. This can only come through when dedicated agencies like the state ACBs or the CBI and others are guided and led by leaders who are true professionals and empathetic in equal measure, ready to be guided by the core ideals of the Constitution of India, to which they take the oath of allegiance upon joining the public service.

We started off with Mumbai and Maharashtra. The other part of the former state of Bombay, now called Gujarat, makes for an interesting reference point. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Gujarat, during recent years, under the continuous and sustained leadership of its head, has displayed a never heard of 75% conviction rate. It had begun at just around 16% five years ago. Not only did the number of cases where the agency intervened increase substantially year on year, the conviction rates before the courts also jumped steadily through 25%, 41% to 75% on a year-to-year basis by 2020. The Gujarat agency caught on to the major factor of the delay between registering a case and the actual filing of a chargesheet before the court of law. By and large the law mandates a maximum of 90 days, however, the officers/offices all over India take much more time to do so. Ironically, no accountability is fixed here, which gives the accused and the witnesses a lot of time for ‘imagination’ and avoidance.  

The Gujarat ACB during the last two years registered about 225 cases per year, on an average, and succeeded in filing chargesheets in all cases within the stipulated period of 90 days. Constant monitoring, motivation, use of information technology, and an awareness drive through the media and word of mouth have helped the agency look at the menace in the eye. The focus of the agency on watertight evidence backed by using forensic science methodologies along with use of IT for information gathering, corroboration, and more importantly, monitoring by developing an in-house app has been the cornerstone of its working and efficacy. For example, an input about misappropriation of funds in the construction of johads, or farm tanks for irrigation, in the state was followed by geological mapping to find whether any such tanks were actually being dug and figure out how crores of rupees for the purpose were going missing. Apart from using DNA fingerprinting, the agency extensively uses layered voice analysis that uses the accused’s voice modulation to catch whether the accused is fibbing. 

The agency also uses the services of officers in government departments being probed, like the state PWD, land registration offices, banks and RTOs, to unearth benami properties, and engages a panel of lawyers and chartered accountants to verify financial transactions. The agency’s model of training and using interns from forensic sciences and law universities and students of other sciences like IT could be upscaled at the national level to support investigations besides professionally orienting university students and scholars. One of the landmark judgements of the Supreme Court, whereby the apex court widened the scope of the definition of “Public Servant”, was a result of a criminal case registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau Gujarat, vide Prevention of Corruption Act, against the Trustee of Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, a Deemed to be University in Vadodara. The judgment is liable to be used by all states and the CBI at the national level.

The work done by the Gujarat ACB could lead us to the structural, procedural and systemic changes required to bring a pan-India change so that the country moves up the ladder in Transparency International’s rankings, notwithstanding how much we value such foreign agencies, their methodologies and motivations.

Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy released Rs 254.72 crore under YSR Bima to the families of 12,039 deceased, who were eligible for the scheme but did not enroll with the banks. Speaking at the event, the Chief Minister said that the State Government has not backed out in providing financial assistance to those families who lost their sole breadwinner. Even though the government pays premium to banks, due to non-enrollment under YSR Bima, the government came forward to pay for the 12,039 claims.

The Chief Minister explained that there are about 1.4 crore ration card holders across the State, and the government started YSR Bima in October 2020 by paying a premium of Rs 510 crore to the banks, despite Central Government withdrawing from the scheme, which was earlier paying 50 percent of premium. After the Centre’s withdrawal, the entire premium was paid by the State on humanitarian grounds to provide security for those families in need. However, the Centre has put more clauses, closing the existing group insurance system and made a mandatory bank account for every person in the family. The Centre had put another clause of a 45-day cool-off period from the day of account opening, where if someone dies within 45 days, the insurance will not be paid.

The Chief Minister said that 62 lakh accounts were opened so far and the remaining 70 lakh accounts are yet to be opened. The Chief Minister directed the officials to come up with a practical solution to sort out the issues and for the better implementation of YSR Bima. He assured that the government shall pay the premium just like the previous years and told the authorities to find a practical solution to support families in need. Further, the Chief Minister said that any eligible person who was left out from YSR Bima can call toll free number 155214 for getting registered and assured that the government will take steps to ensure that they get benefitted. Under the scheme, insurance amount for accidental death and total permanent disability for people aged between 18-50 years is Rs 5 lakh and for those between 51-70 years Rs 3 lakh. Similarly, for natural death cases (18-50 years) Rs 2 lakh and for partial, permanent disability in an accident case (18-70 years) Rs 1.5 lakh assistance will be provided.

Congress campaign in poll-bound Tamil Nadu is all set to witness an emotional moment as party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday is scheduled to visit Sriperumbudur in Kanchipuram district, where her father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.

According to the party sources, her visit is not associated with political developments or poll campaigning, it will a personal affair only. After the visit on April 3, she will campaign in Kanyakumari parliamentary seat, which fell vacant after the demise of Congress MP H Vasanth Kumar. The party has fielded V Vijayakumar to retain the constituency, sources added.

In Tamil Nadu, Congress is contesting on 25 assembly seats in alliance with the DMK. The Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be done on May 2.

Priyanka Gandhi is actively campaigning in poll-bound states like Assam, Kerala and will now campaign in Tamil Nadu. She has done two tours of Assam till now and her third visit is scheduled for April 2.

She will also address the rallies in West Bengal, added the party sources.

Women in Punjab can now travel free of cost in all Government-run buses within the state from Thursday, with the cabinet today stamping its formal approval on the scheme, announced by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh earlier this month.

The Chief Minister had announced the free travel scheme in the Vidhan Sabha on March 5, as part of his government’s efforts to empower women and girls in the state.

The scheme will benefit over 1.31 crore women/girls across the state. As per Census 2011, Punjab has a population of 2.77 crores (males 1,46,39,465 and female 1,31,03,873).

Under the scheme, women residents of Punjab can avail free bus travel in Government-owned buses, including PEPSU Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), Punjab Roadways Buses (PUNBUS) and City Bus Services operated by Local Bodies. However, the scheme is not applicable to Government-owned AC Buses, Volvo Buses and HVAC Buses. Documents like Aadhaar Card, Voter Card or any other proof of residence in Punjab would be required to avail the facility.

Further, all women who are family members of Punjab Government employees and residing in Chandigarh, or are themselves employees of Punjab Government but live in Chandigarh, can avail the benefit, irrespective of age and income criteria, of free travel in the said government buses.

This scheme is expected to not only reduce female drop-out in schools because of high cost of daily transport but also facilitate working women, who have to travel considerable distances to their workplace. The facility will thus ensure access to safe, cheap and reliable travel for women to engage in any economic activity. Since the scheme is expected to encourage women and their companions to utilize public transport, it would naturally bring down the number of personal vehicles plying on the roads leading to consequent reduction in pollution, accidents and vehicular congestion, the Cabinet felt.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday warned of stricter restrictions if the Covid situation in the state, which is reeling under a massive surge of cases and deaths, does not improve over the next one week.

The situation will be reviewed again on April 8, and decision on further curbs may be taken if the Covid spread continues unchecked, the Chief Minister said, at a virtual review meeting with top health, administrative and police officials. “I will watch things for a week, and then if there is no improvement, we may have to go for stricter curbs,” he said.

Underlining the need for aggressive vaccination, particularly in areas with high case and cities with more than 300 cases, Captain Amarinder directed officials to reach out to eligible people at the Mohalla level in the worst affected districts to motivate people to get vaccinated. He also directed stricter enforcement of Covid restrictions and protocols in the worst affected cities of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Mohali and Amritsar.

Dr K.K Talwar, head of the state’s Covid expert committee, said more enforcement of restrictions was needed in the urban areas, which were reporting higher cases. DGP Dinkar Gupta said since March 19, a total of 1.30 lakh people had been taken for RTPCR testing on being found moving around without masks. Of these, 391 were found positive, he disclosed.

The districts of SAS Nagar, Kapurthala, Patiala, SBS Nagar, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana are reporting the maximum positivity, while the overall positivity in the state stands at 7.6% as of March 24, 2021.

Taking note of the inconvenience caused to commuters, the Chief Minister also ordered doing away with the one-hour silence on Saturdays to commemorate the Covid warriors.

The Chief Minister expressed concern over the high death rate due to Covid in Punjab, which Dr Talwar said was due to patients not coming to hospitals in time and the rate of co-morbidities also being high in the state. Dr Talwar informed the meeting that 80-85% patients dying have chronic diseases.

The Chief Minister directed the administration to develop a robust mechanism to get people with co-morbidities to the hospital at the earliest, besides stricter monitoring of home isolated people.

He also once again appealed to religious and political leaders of all hues to promote Covid appropriate behaviour in the interest of the people of the state.

On the centenary of the first ever draft design of the Indian national flag, TDP president and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has made a fervent appeal to the Centre to confer the Bharat Ratna on Pingali Venkayya for “his services as a freedom fighter and designer of the national Tricolour”. Naidu termed it as a matter of pride for all Telugus that Venkayya gave the design for the national flag which has remained a symbol of the country’s equality, fraternity and unity in diversity. The Tricolour symbolises and reflects the overall Indian culture and tradition. In a statement here, the TDP chief recalled how Pingali Venkayya actively took part in the Vandemataram and Home Rule agitations during the struggle for independence. His services in the freedom movement would be remembered forever, Naidu said. The Tricolour would always stand out for the three basic tenets of sacrifice, peace and progress. The Asoka Chakra in the middle would stand for dharma.

Naidu said that Pingali Venkayya had also rendered his research services in agriculture and geology. He worked as an advisor in the mineral research department after independence. Every citizen should consider it a duty to respect the sovereignty and significance of the national flag. It would be apt to honour Venkayya with the country’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, Naidu said.