Justice Santosh Hegde - Battle Against Corruption

 

In the battle against corruption, the high office of the Lokayukta has for now lost a crusading soldier,Justice Santosh Hegde resigned as the Chief Lokayukta of Karnataka & said Karnataka state was not interested in checking the corruption by the multi-crore mining mafia that is led by the all-powerful Reddy brothers. Reddy brothers are also ministers in the BS Yeddyurappa government. Justice Hegde also said that corrupt IPS and IAS officers were being reinstated even after he indicted them.

Justice Hegde had conducted a detailed investigation into the mining mafia of Bellary worth over Rs 50,000 crore. But, the state government junked his report. Undeterred Hegde continued his crackdown on mining mafia, corrupt bureaucrats, police and even MLAs across the state. Some ministers including the Reddy brothers of Bellary even went to extent of targeting him in public. Justice Hegde now says that it is up to the Governor HR Bhardwaj to act on his resignation.

Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde said only 10 per cent of corruption has been controlled so far in absence of sufficient powers. The cases are piling up with the government denying him power to take the cases to the court. He said, 18,250 cases of corruption are yet to reach the court of law. The Lokayukta informed the people that in the recent months, 350 cases of corruption were exposed by the Lokayukta police but ironically none of these cases go for trial and many corrupt officials got promotion in place of their dismissal from the department.

Mr. Hegde's resignation, which is apparently the first time in the country that a Lokayukta has quit after blaming the Government for its failure to prevent corruption in public administration.

Justice Santosh Hegde, who was appointed Lokayukta on August 3, 2006, is a man of impeccable integrity and honesty. He has conducted more than 100 raids to unearth disproportionate assets of various officials across Karnataka.

It is very difficult to find his replacement. It is an unfortunate development. The Government neglected, ignored and deliberately overruled the Lokayukta institution. The State government should appeal to Justice Santosh Hegde to reconsider his decision in the interest of Lokayukta. He is a one man army against the corruption in our state & we need sincere & honest officers like him.

The state government should immediately appoint Upa Lokayukta at the earliest, should give prosecution powers to the Lokayukta, dismiss the corrupt government officials from service & dismiss the corrupt politicians from the legislatures / councils.

Dear friends please share your valuable views.....Thanks

Please visit this page for more such blogs.