Gujral flays `publicity-oriented’ probes

Explaining what he meant by “witch-hunting”, Gujral said at times, the people were being “prosecuted” even before their cases reached the courts. There had been recent cases where people had been “punished publicly” but the courts had found nothing wrong. “I think publicity-oriented investigation is something we have to prevent, ” he said.

“And publicity sometimes gives me the impression that there is really some sort of exhibitionist trend in the personalities who think that it is more important for the public to know them than to know what they are doing.”“No investigative agency can really be credible if it does not act silently and does not observe the rules of the game,” he added.

He said economic liberalisation was being defeated not by Government action or inaction but by corruption. “You cannot have liberalisation and corruption sleeping in the same bed.”

Grass-root democratisation would help curb corruption as the local people knew where the funds were going, he added.

Apart from the need for tackling corruption, Gujral also stressed on a systematic review of laws and simplification of rules as well as providing more access to information. These points figure in the Action Plan.The conference agreed to amend existing rules and regulations both at the Centre and the states within six months to provide for exemplary prosecution and removal of corrupt officials. It also decided to deal firmly with the nexus between politicians, civil servants and criminals.

While doing away with staff of doubtful integrity, a suitable mechanism should be evolved to reward government employees doing good work, the chief ministers resolved at the day-long conference.

Briefing newsmen, the cabinet secretary, TSR Subramanian said the chief ministers called for effective surveillance and deterrent action to eliminate corruption in public services.

Addressing the conference, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde said the State Government would soon come out with a policy on the issue of transfers of public servants.

He said he also wanted civil servants to be treated as partners in government and not as opponents. “The relationship is still influenced by the pre-Independence adversarial attitude”, he remarked, calling for a reversal of the trend.

The conference agreed that immediate necessary steps should be taken by the Centre in consultation with state governments for examining the report of the working group on the right to information and for introducing in Parliament before the end of the current year a legislation on freedom of information. Endorsing the proposals made in the action plan, some of the state governments indicated the need to include provisions which would ensure that the misuse of the right to information did not lead to embarrassment of the government. While some of the states have already initiated steps to provide the right, others will also undertake a similar exercise.

The conference agreed that the Centre and the states would work together for simplification of existing laws and take steps to repeal obsolete laws. This conference represented the culmination of a national debate on effective and responsive administration which was initiated at a meeting of chief secretaries on November 20 last year. Gujral agreed to convene a second conference of chief ministers before the year-end to review the progress in the implementation of the action plan.