By IANS
Lucknow : The India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI), a non profit and social forum engaged in exposing corruption, has submitted a list of 20 most corrupt IAS and IPS officers in Uttar Pradesh.
In a letter addressed to Shashank Shekhar Singh, UP cabinet secretary, IRI has urged the state government to launch inquiries into the assets of these 20 senior officials either through CBI or by the state vigilance establishment.
“The number of corrupt officers in UP is too large and the list could have been a much longer one. But we limited their numbers to ten each so that it may be easier for taking action against them,” said the IRI letter issued Friday, which was signed by Prakash Singh, former director general of UP Police and one of the founding members of the IRI.
“Action taken against the corrupt officials is bound to send a message down the line and will have a deterrent effect on the large majority of officers,” said the letter, a copy of which is with IANS.
Former UP chief secretary Neera Yadav is one of the prominent official who was named in the list of most corrupt IAS officials of the state. She was removed from the top job in 2005 following the Supreme Court order over a petition that highlighted her corrupt track record.
Other “most corrupt” IAS officials named in the list were J.S. Misra, S.N. Jha, Tulsi Gaur, Lalit Verma, Sanjeev Saran and B.B. Singh. Among the top IPS officers in the list were B.K. Bhalla, Vipan Kumar Sharma, Gurbachan Lal and Ashutosh Pandey.
The anti-grafts association also called for the suspension of the officials from their service under Article 311 (2) of the constitution.
The letter added, “Like cancer, corruption is destroying our body politic and UP being already very low on human development indices, it is absolutely essential that exemplary action is taken against the officers in the list or else their increasing numbers would frustrate all attempts at the government’s mission to ensure economic development.”
IRI was launched in June 2006 by some high-profile retired bureaucrats such as former chief justice of India R.C. Lahoti, former chief election commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, former chief of air staff S. Krishnaswamy, former comptroller and auditor general of India V.K.Shunglu along with some reputed journalists and academicians.
The main objective of the initiative is to focus on attracting public attention and mobilise public opinion on ways to check corruption, lack of accountability and inefficiency and to ensure probity in public life.
In its bid to build coordination between various non-official anti-corruption organizations across the country, IRI will organize a national level meet in Mumbai Feb 21. Former Mumbai police commissioner J.F. Ribeiro has been entrusted with the responsibility of the meet.