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HomeEditorialWhy Indian bureaucrats are corrupt?- Part-2

Why Indian bureaucrats are corrupt?- Part-2

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Radheshyam Mopalwar born on 15th February 1958 joined Indian Administrative Services in 1995. His qualification includes Graduation in Economics and Post Graduate in Law. Before joining his current posting as Member Secretary of Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran, Mopalwar has served as CEO of Rural Development at Hingoli, Director of Water Resources at Pune, General Manager at Transport Department (Pune), Collector – Land Revenue Management and District Management at MIDC, Member Secretary – Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) – Mumbai City. His track records were never clean. He is one of the richest IAS officers of the state. He is utmost influential and well connected to the stalwarts of every political party.

He came to limelight with Abdul Karim Telgi, the scam kingpin, moved an application in October 2008 asking the court to name Mopalwar as an accused. Special judge Chitra Bhedi then issued summons to Mopalwar in three forgery cases. Mopalwar, who was the superintendent of stamps in the 1990s, has been asked to remain present in court on July 27. For almost seven years since police unearthed the multi-crore-stamp paper scam, Radheshyam Mopalwar remained unscathed. The joint CEO of MIDC, a complainant in the case, always claimed to be a whistle-blower. And later on a special CBI court named him an accused. Mopalwar was charged with cheating, fraud, and forgery. Also, some sections of the Bombay Stamp Act and Prevention of Corruption Act have been used. Telgi in his confession to a Pune magistrate on February 4, 2006, specifically named Mopalwar as a partner in the crime. In his 153-page confession, Telgi alleged that Mopalwar took Rs5 lakh from him for giving a list of important clients.

During cross-examinations Telgi named Mopalwar and suggested that he had knowledge of Telgi’s illegal business and was partner with equal rights. After getting an endorsement of the state revenue minister in March 1994, Vilasrao Deshmukh, on his application for stamp paper vending licence, Mopalwar cleared it within a month, Telgi said in his confession. And it was cleared when several applications were pending for more than three years. Mopalwar gave him a licence for vending all kinds of stamps. During Telgi’s stint as a vendor, Mopalwar allegedly accepted gifts worth more than Rs60 lakh and even took a bribe of Rs5 lakh, according to the confession. Telgi said the special adhesive stamps that were exclusively issued by the General Stamps Office were reused (fake). According to Telgi, after a misunderstanding between the two, Mopalwar registered cases against him. Anyways, he is not alone on the list of corrupts.

Let’s us look beyond Maharashtra you will find almost every state government protecting its bureaucrats until their own neck won’t come under axe. On May 22, the Central Bureau of Investigation’s special court in Delhi sentenced then coal secretary H.C. Gupta and two other serving government officials – K.S. Kropha and K.C. Samaria – to a two-year prison term. Earlier pronounced “guilty” of wrongdoing in the allocation of a coal block in Madhya Pradesh to a private firm, Kamal Sponge Steel & Power Limited (KSSPL), in 2008, the three were also ordered to pay individual fines of Rs 1 lakh each. Besides the bureaucrats, the court imposed a Rs 1 crore penalty on the company and a personal fine of Rs 30 lakh and three-year jail term for its MD, Pawan Kumar Ahluwalia.

The large number of bureaucrats accused of corruption, includes serving and retired officials, and the Vigilance Investigation Bureau (VIB) is investigating the matter and will take suitable action as per the findings. Around 183 bureaucrats, including 43 IAS and eight IPS officials in Bihar, are facing probe and cases with regard to charges of corruption and disproportionate wealth.

Thirty-four probes and nine cases against serving and retired IAS officials, as well as, probes against eight serving and retired IPS officials are pending at the VIB. Similarly, 95 probes and 37 cases against officials of the Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) are pending.

In New Delhi, 39 IAS officers are under investigation for their alleged involvement in corruption and other irregularities. Besides the 39 IAS officers, 29 from the Central Secretariat Service are also facing disciplinary proceedings. Nearly 25,000 of these are from all India and Group A services — including the IAS, Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS). There are about 48.85 lakh central government employees, according to latest data. In the last one year, the Centre has given compulsory retirement to 129 non-performing employees, including IAS and IPS officers. It has also undertaken an exercise to review the service records of about 67,000 employees to identify non-performers.

IAS Officers are the topmost civil servants in India. But not all are serving the nation as they had vowed to right before joining office. Conspiracy, fraudulence and corruption have found their influence into the services too. It is very difficult to suspect an IAS Officer at a preliminary level. Some are successful in shielding themselves from the eyes of the law, while some get caught in the process. The ones who are caught get rigorous imprisonment, but the problem does not seize to be. Corruption does stay and affect the society at a much more serious level.

 (Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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