Check on corruption with greater diligence: VP

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Vice President Hamid Ansari has called for a check on corruption by the rule of law with greater diligence to make a strong democracy.

"We do need to put a stop to the loot emanating from corruption, enforce the rule of law with greater diligence, and erase the creeping impression that we are a populist democracy rather than a constitutional one," the Vice President said, while releasing a book on late Feroze Gandhi here today.

Stressing the need for a heightened public awareness against corruption and a 'reasoned' debate in the civil society and parliament, he said only a determined effort and a plan of action could pursue its implementation.

He said, Feroze Gandhi was one who had initiated a debate on the role of the state in the economy and role of parliament in scrutinising executive action. "Five decades later the ideological debate has not disappeared; instead, it has developed new dimentions," he said, refering to the controversy arisen on SEZs.

The Vice President also made a dig on the Opposition parties when he referred to the 2006 United Nation's report which had castigated the opposition parties as reactive rather than proactive, saying the Opposition "uses Parliament more to impugn the credibility of governments than to exercise accountability for the sake of good governnance. "Matters were perhaps better in earlier times," Mr Ansari observed.

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