Minister K Rajan takes action against corrupt officials; transfers 10 revenue officials

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite constant inspections by the Police Vigilance and Internal Vigilance Division, the corrupt officials in the Revenue Department continue to walk free. The department has also suffered a bad reputation because of the corruption. Minister K. Rajan has finally stepped in to lock up the corrupt officials. A team of honest officials was appointed to collect information about corrupt officials in all the districts. A list was prepared.

Ten officials who were found to be troublemakers were transferred. This includes six individuals from Ernakulam and four from Thrissur. They hold posts such as village officer and deputy tehsildar. The transfers are to offices that do not have direct contact with the people. This is the first time in the state that a department minister has directly instigated an investigation and taken action against those found guilty of corruption. Similar action will be taken soon in other districts as well.

The minister's operation was carried out, withholding information about this from the service organisations. The action was taken in a situation where bribery by officials, including when delivering land reclassification services, was rampant, which embarrassed the department.

Previously, the minister personally called a meeting of officials at the district level to put an end to this. However, that did not yield good results. Thereafter, this new method was adopted by the minister.

22,500 - Employees (19,500 in Land Revenue, 3000 in Survey Department)

76 - Bribery cases taken by Vigilance last year

20 - Bmployees arrested by Vigilance last year