The Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is set to present a comprehensive list of government officials and employees suspected of corrupt practices to the state administration on Monday. This action follows a direct order from the government, which mandated the bureau to compile data from across the state's various departments.
Wide Net Cast Across Government Departments
The ACB has been tasked with identifying potentially corrupt individuals from a total of 28 distinct departments, boards, and corporations. This sweeping initiative comes months after the publication of an earlier list that named approximately 370 patwaris, a move that sparked considerable political controversy. With the government's deadline of December 8 now passed, the bureau has nearly finished compiling the data received from different districts. It is still not known whether the final list will be made available to the public.
According to sources within the ACB, the revenue and disaster management department features at the top of the list of departments under scrutiny. It is closely followed by the police department, urban local bodies, the electricity corporation, and the education department. The scope of this anti-corruption drive is extensive, covering a significant portion of the state's administrative machinery.
Challenges in Compiling the List
Officials involved in the process have stated that preparing such a list presented significant challenges. Merely collecting public opinion was deemed insufficient to label an employee as corrupt. Therefore, the lists primarily consist of officials against whom specific bribery complaints were filed, but where subsequent raids by the bureau could not gather enough concrete, actionable evidence to press charges. The ACB has also been consulting with prominent anti-corruption activists to refine its approach.
A major obstacle identified by the bureau is the evolving tactics of bribery. There is a growing trend of government staff using middlemen or brokers to collect illicit money, thereby avoiding direct contact with cash. In response to this, the ACB is preparing a separate list of these suspected brokers who are allegedly operating within various departments. This step highlights the changing nature of corrupt practices that investigators must now tackle.
Comprehensive Departmental Coverage
The government's directive for scrutiny extends to a wide array of other departments. These include excise and taxation, food and civil supplies, health, municipal corporations, panchayati raj, and public health engineering. Furthermore, lists have been sought from the Haryana legislative assembly, HUDA, and the welfare department for Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes.
The transport department, the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board, and the irrigation department are also part of this exercise. Other departments on the list are social justice and empowerment, town planning, the administrative department, HAFED, Home Guards, land consolidation, development and panchayats, forest, mining and geology, housing board, and labour departments. This indicates a statewide effort to address corruption at multiple levels of governance.
