Union Minister in the PMO Jitendra Singh on Thursday reiterated the government’s commitment to “Zero Tolerance Against Corruption” and highlighted various steps taken to curb it.
Answering an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha, he highlighted the steps undertaken by the government to check corruption.
The minister said systemic improvements and reforms have been undertaken to provide transparent citizen-friendly services and reduce corruption. These include disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the government in a transparent manner through the Direct Benefit Transfer initiative.
Dr Jitendra Singh also spoke about the discontinuation of interviews in recruitment of Group ‘B’ (Non-Gazetted) and Group ‘C’ posts in the Government of India.
The All India Services (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules and Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules have been amended to provide for specific timelines in the procedure related to disciplinary proceedings, he said.
He also pointed out that the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was amended in 2018 to clearly criminalise the act of giving bribes. It will help check big ticket corruption by creating a vicarious liability in respect of senior management of commercial organisations.
He also noted that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), through various orders and circulars, recommended adoption of the Integrity Pact to all the organisations in major procurement activities to ensure effective and expeditious investigation wherever any irregularity/misconduct is noticed.
The institution of Lokpal has been operationalised by appointment of Chairperson and Members.