The Bhagwant Mann-led government in Punjab said the ACL helped complainants through a platform to lodge complaints against people holding high positions. (Image: PTI/File)
Despite allegations of “fake” cases of corruption, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau said the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line has achieved significant results since it was set up nearly 14 months ago.
Amidst attack from the opposition over politicians being targeted in “fake” cases of corruption, the Punjab Vigilance Bureau claimed that significant results have been achieved since the Chief Minister’s Anti-Corruption Action Line was set up nearly 14 months ago. Since March 23, 2022, officials said 7,939 complaints with evidence were received in the 24-hour service.
According to VB, any person can file a complaint at any time of the day with relevant audio and video evidence on this citizen-centric artificial intelligence-enabled platform. Officials said the complaints could be related to demand of illegal gratification.
While the opposition rejected the state government’s claims of a crackdown on corruption, the Bhagwant Mann-led government said that the ACL had helped complainants with a platform to register their pleas against “people in high positions”. It was Officials said to ensure an efficient process, an “automated bot” was installed on the web portal to filter out frivolous entries, spam, junk posts and posts unrelated to corruption.
As a result, out of total 4,02,133 entries, 3,90,050 entries were classified as irrelevant or junk posts and non-corruption related matters were duly rejected. The initiative is aimed at optimizing resources and focussing only on actionable complaints which contributes to effectively combating corruption, said an official.
He said that out of the actionable complaints, VB handled 7,939 complaints with audio/video recordings to prove the claims. These complaints were carefully analyzed and 3,401 were found to pertain to other departments. Consequently, these complaints were forwarded to those departments for consideration and appropriate action. The VB spokesperson said the remaining 394 complaints supported by audio/video recording evidence were directly related to allegations of corruption. These were sent to the Senior Superintendents of Police of VB Range for a thorough investigation.
“As a result of rigorous investigation, a milestone has been achieved by registering a total of 88 FIRs based on the results of the investigation conducted so far,” the spokesperson said. Allegedly involved in bribery cases involving 40 policemen.
Since the launch of this anti-corruption drive in April 2022, VB has successfully arrested 359 people for taking bribe in 298 corruption cases across the state. In addition, 152 vigilance inquiries have been registered for comprehensive investigation and 99 departmental inquiries have been initiated.
