DVAC sleeping on complaints, says Arappor; sends coffee powder to launch Wake up campaign
In a petition to Chief Minister M K Stalin, Chief Secretary N Muruganandham and DVAC director Abhay Kumar Singh, Arappor convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said that the performance of the directorate has dropped drastically over the last few years.
DVAC Department
CHENNAI: Pointing out that the number of corruption cases filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) was declining over the years despite complaints, city-based anti-graft outfit Arappor Iyakkam has launched a campaign to send coffee powder to 'wake up DVAC'.
In a petition to Chief Minister M K Stalin, Chief Secretary N Muruganandham and DVAC director Abhay Kumar Singh, Arappor convenor Jayaram Venkatesan said that the performance of the directorate has dropped drastically over the last few years.
While DVAC had been filing around 281 regular case FIRs in 2019, the numbers have dropped drastically to around 130 to 140 in 2022 and 2023, and to 72 in the current year thus far.
More importantly, the Chennai units of DVAC have filed only 4 regular cases in the current year, a drastic drop from around 55 regular FIRS that it had filed in 2019.
“It is shocking to learn that the eight Chennai units of DVAC together have not filed even a single FIR from June," he added.
Noting that the DVAC's annual budget is around Rs 80 crore to Rs 90 crore, of which around Rs 55 crore is spent on salaries, he opined that the abysmal performance of DVAC does not lend any confidence.
"We are sending a coffee packet along with this petition for you to wake up, act and get DVAC to file FIRs against bribery and corruption complaints of Arappor Iyakkam and those happening across the State," he said.
Arappor Iyakkam had submitted more than 30 complaints to DVAC, including corruption in procurement of dhal, sugar and palmolein, illegal registration of lands marked for acquisition for greenfield airport project in Parandur, corruption in procurement of Canadian yellow lentils and ghost faculty in colleges affiliated to the Anna University.
However, FIRs have been filed only on four complaints while the others are pending either with DVAC in enquiry stage for years or pending with State government for approval, the organisation added.