Bhubaneswar: The Odisha vigilance department has arrested 23 government servants, including four class-I officials, during one and a half months of 2022, an official said on Wednesday.
In 2022 so far, the state vigilance department has registered 31 cases under the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and arrested 23 government employees, said Vigilance Director Y.K. Jethwa.
Briefing the media about how the vigilance department has been able to crackdown on such a large number of corrupt officials, Jethwa said, “A considerable amount of vigilance work is based on feedback. Primarily we are tapping two types of feedback. One is pre-bribery feedback and the other is post-bribery or corruption feedback.
“Under the pre-bribery feedback, we are relying on whistleblowers, aggrieved persons and our sources in various departments, institutions and offices across Odisha,” he added.
He said this feedback helps the vigilance department in laying traps and nabbing those who are demanding and accepting bribes, while the transaction is taking place, or in intercepting them while travelling with bribe amounts.
“Similarly, for the post-bribery feedback, we have been increasingly tapping the massive data generated by the ‘Mo Sarkar’ system which is collecting random feedback on bribery, harassment etc. from community members who visit government offices for various services,” the Vigilance Director said.
This feedback is helping the vigilance department in targeting the disproportionate assets generated through bribery and corruption, Jethwa added.
This data is helping us in identifying hotspots of corruption in terms of individuals and institutions, and enabling more focused targeting, the IPS official said.
“In coming days we are committed to intensify our actions further, equipped with the ‘Mo Sarkar’ feedback and utilising data mining tools over the ‘Mo Sarkar’ data, and taking advantage of digital data and footprints generated in financial transactions and activities of individuals,” he added.
Under the Mo Sarkar initiative, the state government is collecting feedback by making random calls to the citizens visiting various government offices, including police stations.
The Vigilance Director gave this statement in the wake of the arrest of Additional Superintendent of Police (Communication), Trinath Mishra, on corruption charges.
The anti-corruption wing on Wednesday arrested Mishra after unearthing disproportionate assets worth more than Rs 11 crore, which is 500 per cent more than his own source of income, said Akshya Kumar Mishra, Vigilance Superintendent of Police.
During the raid, the vigilance department also seized a BMW X7 car worth more than Rs one crore, Hyundai Creta car (worth Rs 17 lakh), Maruti Baleno, Chevrolet Trailblazer LTZ car and GTR 250 Hyosung bike worth Rs 5.3 lakh, Triumph Rocket 3 2020 worth Rs 20 lakh and Royal Enfield Classic 500 ABS costing Rs 1.75 lakh from the possession of the Additional Superintendent of Police.
Apart from the vehicles, the vigilance department has also detected several plots, flats and business establishments in the name of Mishra’s wife and two unmarried sons.
–IANS