More than two years after Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal announced to set up an anti-corruption cell in the State at an event to mark International Anti-Corruption Day, the Chief Minister Secretariat-II, in a reply to an RTI application, said the office did not have the record of any such announcement ever made.
The reply was furnished in response to the RTI application filed by Panipat resident P.P. Kapoor on November 24, seeking an attested copy of the status report on the announcement made by Manohar Lal at a grand function on December 9, 2019, in Panchkula.
Shocking reply
Mr. Kapoor said he was shocked by the reply to his RTI application since the Haryana government had spent lavishly on this event and the Information, Public Relations and Languages Department of the State had put out huge advertisements in leading Hindi and English dailies at the expense of taxpayers with the CM’s picture to publicise the announcements.
As per the advertisements that had appeared in various newspapers, Mr. Lal had announced to set up an anti-corruption cell to “immediately investigate every complaint of corruption substantiated by an audio and video recording”. He had also said that the complainants would be rewarded if their complaints were found to be true.
Mr. Kapoor said the reply to his RTI application had made it clear that the Haryana government was not serious about eradicating corruption and this was the reason for the widespread corruption in recruitments for government jobs as well as all-round corruption.
He said that in reply to a similar RTI application filed by him on December 12, 2019, Dinesh Sharma, SPIO-cum-Under Secretary Vigilance, had said that the decision to set up the cell was under the consideration of the authorities, but two years later, the government has refused to acknowledge that any such announcement was ever made.