By IANS,
New Delhi : The government is “extremely serious” about fighting corruption, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said Wednesday.
“The government is seized of the issue. We are extremely serious about it. This is a malaise spread across the length and breadth of the country. It is not something that came up yesterday,” Scindia told reporters.
He said that “never before has there been as stringent action on (corrupt) ministers and MPs as seen today.
“I think the action of the government very seriously conveys seriousness of the exercise.”
The minister said the Right to Information (RTI) Act had led to “a lot of things coming out”. The legislation was a “policy making process” of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Scindia’s remarks came in the backdrop of allegations by civil society activists that the government was not sincere in tackling corruption and was ignoring demands for a strong Lokpal bill.