217 arrested for corruption in two years

Patna, May 08 (UNI) Altogether 217 people, including senior government officials, were arrested by the state vigilance department, for their involvement in corruption cases during the last two years.

Principal secretary of state vigilance department Vijay Kumar Verma told reporters that the vigilance department's 188 trap cases lead to the arrest of those involved in corruption and it was the effect of constant vigil being maintained by the department.

'' With the sincere efforts of the vigilance, there was marked decrease in the corruption cases,'' he said adding that the wiping out of the corruption menace was not possible if common people did not cooperate.

'' We are also contemplating to hire the services of an independent agency to carry out the impact of the special drive of the vigilance to curb the corruption menace,'' Mr Verma said adding its report would carry more credibility about the functioning of the vigilance department.

Mr Verma said the state government had earmarked fund of Rs 20 lakhs for immediate disbursement of the sum to the parties who offered it as bribe and it would be later realised after the release of the sum by the court.

He said the Special unit of Vigilance bureau had cracked the whip on senior officers, including former DGP Narain Mishra, the then secretary of minor irrigation Shivshankar Sharma and the director of Rajbhasa department Dhruv Narain Choudhary.

Cash and unaccounted property worth crores of rupees were detected during the raid carried out in the residences of these officersm, he added.

Director General of vigilance of the state electricity board Anand Shankar said the steps had been initiated to catch the ''big fish'' involved in pilferage of the electricity causing loss of revenue worth crores of rupees.

''Some people are adopting high technology to tamper the electric meter and we are also equipped with sophisticated gadgets to nab such offenders,'' he added.

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