The CVC, in its report tabled in Parliament recently, said it received a total of 23,609 complaints in 2017, the lowest since 2011, as against 49,847 complaints in 2016.
There has been a 52% decline in the number of corruption complaints received by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) last year, compared to 2016. In fact, the number is lowest in the last five years.
The CVC, in its report tabled in Parliament recently, said it received a total of 23,609 complaints in 2017, the lowest since 2011, as against 49,847 complaints in 2016. A large number of complaints were received against the railways and government-owned banks.
Sources said the decline in the number of complaints may be an indication that the corruption in Central government departments has come down. It also points to the fact that the system for weeding out duplication of complaints has improved a lot in the last few years. However, according to an RTI activist, it also needs to be found whether the people are losing trust in anti-corruption bodies.
According to the report, in majority of the complaints, the allegations were found to be either vague or unverifiable. The commission received a considerable number of complaints against public servants working in the state governments and other organisations who do not come under the jurisdiction of the CVC or which are of administrative nature.
As per the report, the highest number of complaints—12,089—were received against railway employees. Out of these, 9,575 were disposed of while 2,514 are pending.
A total of 8,243 corruption complaints were received against various local bodies like Delhi Jal Board (DJB), municipal corporations of Delhi, and NDMC. As many as 8,018 complaints were received against officials of various banks.
Similarly, there were 2,730 complaints against Central Board of Direct Taxes 9CBDT) employees, followed by 2,713 against those in the Petroleum Ministry and 1,194 against the employees of Central Board of Excise of Customs.
There were 1,662 corruption complaints against food and consumer affairs ministry, 1,317 against various insurance officials, 1,313 against labour department officials and 856 against the employees with department of telecommunications.According to the report, in 2017, the agency tackled 26,052 complaints which included 2,443 brought forward from 2016. Of this, 22,386 complaints were disposed off while 3,666 complaints remained pending.