Centre yet to bring rule to confiscate benami property:Vittal

Chennai, Oct 7 (UNI) Former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal said today that the Union Government is yet to bring out a rule to confiscate benami properties, even though the Benami Transaction Prohibition Act 1988 states that the benami property could be confiscated.

Speaking at the ''Shaping the Future'' Convention organised by the Annamalai University Engineering and Technology Alumni Association, here, Mr Vittal said, ''In the year, 1988, the Union Government enacted the Benami Transaction Prohibition Act. Section-5 of the Act says the benami property can be confiscated and section-8 says that the Government will frame the rules for confiscating the benami property. Till now, the Union Government has not framed the rules.'' He said that according to the study done by the Berlin based Transparency International, India ranked 81st position, out of 156 countries and in the bribe givers index, India ranked 30.

''The Delhi based Centre for Media Studies has also carried a similar survey and Bihar has been ranked as the most corrupt state and Kerala as the least corrupt. We need to tackle the issue of corruption, if we want to become a developed nation,'' he said.

More than 200 delegates participated and three colleges had displayed their innovative projects.

Among others, including Mr Mike Wader, Leadership International, USA, Dr D Viswanathan Vice-Chancellor Anna University, Dr S Madhavan, Kellogg Brown and Root USA, spoke.

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