Reacting to the allegation by ACAUT, terming the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) as a decorative arm of the State, the director & DIGP, Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Police, I. Meyionen in a rejoinder said that such statement was uncalled for.
SVC, while acknowledging the concern expressed by ACAUT regarding issues that needed the attention of the Commission, pointed out that the Commission has been investigating 90 cases (regular and preliminary enquiries) including SIT cases that require involvement of a good number of officers in every case.
As investigating team required touring various districts to probe cases, SVC however, said it had the strength of only 13 IO, 11 Assisting IOs and three SO including the director for the whole State.
On fuel adulteration scam, SVC said it had taken serious note of the issue. Stating that since investigation could be on full swing with two FIRs were already lodged by Dimapur police– one at Diphupar P.S and the other at West P.S Dimapur, SVC clarified that as per the policy of the state government, no parallel investigation can be carried out for a particular case, as the law also prohibits the same and not practical as mentioned.
As regards to Excise department case in 2014, the Commission said it had investigated the case and the findings and recommendation of the Commission was communicated to the department for necessary action.
Accordingly the department acted by serving administrative warning to one deputy superintendent of Excise and one Inspector, while an inspector was censored.
It said that the Commission also noted the poor maintenance of record by the department and recommended that the Excise department streamline the maintenance of all official records.
With regard to the complaint raised by ACAUT on backdoor appointment of BDOs in 2015, SVC said that the matter was addressed to the chief secretary and copy endorsed to State Vigilance Commissioner. However, SVC said that the matter was not taken up by the Commission since it had not received direction from the government to investigate into the matter.
With regard to the PDS scam under F&CS department, SVC said there was no formal complaint till date.
With regard to the allegation that the SVC was not taking up suo-moto cases, it clarified that the Commission functions as per the government Resolutions and Notifications adopted from time to time.
“There are some technical issue with regard to the government amendments on the Resolutions regarding suo-moto cases for which clarification has been sought from the government”, the State Vigilance Commission said.
In this regard, the SVC appealed to the public to understand the limitations and functioning of the Commission.
Lamenting that “greed addicts prevalent in the society” were pushing humanity into a medieval sort of decadence, SVC said “everyone these days, from all walks of life are all thirsting for personal profits”. The lack of transparency, morality, accountability, consistency and institutional weakness provide fertile ground for the growth of corruption, it added.
Further, SVC urged ACAUT and the general public to have faith in the police investigation on fuel adulteration and to cooperate with the investigating team to ensure speedy justice.