Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has many a times reiterated that corruption and dishonesty have no place in public life. The government has a strict policy of zero tolerance and the Chief Minister has given a free hand to the enforcement agencies to nail the corrupt officials. Probity and integrity of government officials in public life have been the mainstay by which the government reaches out to the masses.
The dismissal of senior IAS Officer Vinod Kumar, who has been convicted in multiple corruption charges, is one of several such examples where the government has acted tough. The policy is to take action against all who indulge in activities that are detrimental to the well being of the common man. Starting from the lower rung of the officials to the senior most civil servants, all are accountable to the people of Odisha. Acting on the dictate of the Government of Odisha, the Odisha Vigilance Department has been constantly taking up cases that involve government officials.
In the last two years, the government has dismissed from service more than 130 officials for corrupt practices. The government is also pursuing denial of financial benefits of the corrupt officials after their retirement. In November last year, eight officials of the state government were dismissed from the service due to allegations of corruption. In May 2021, senior Indian Forest Service Officer Abhay Pathak, who was working as the Additional PCCF, was also given compulsory retirement on allegations of corruption. In 2020, Odisha Vigilance had arrested Abhay Pathak on charges of amassing assets worth crores disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The Odisha Vigilance Department has been proactively persuing corruption cases involving Government officials. In 2021, 267 criminal cases were registered against corrupt government staff as against 245 in 2020. It also arrested 175 government officers on charges of possessing disproportionate assets, accepting bribes and misappropriating government funds. In the last one year, 23 class-I officers, 28 class-II officers and 104 class-III employees were apprehended.
The Government of Odisha has strengthened the Vigilance network with addition of manpower and infrastructure in the last few years. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has asked the Vigilance officials to adopt a no tolerance policy against corruption in Odisha. He has said that Corruption is the biggest enemy of development and special attention should be given on the welfare schemes like rural housing for poor people, Niramaya scheme for free distribution of medicines and INCDS for women and children.