Transfer of vigilance officials in Chennai Corporation stayed

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam before whom an appeal moved by the Corporation offered the stay after pulling up the Corporation for the numerous ills bogging its functioning.

However, the bench directed the Corporation to file a report about the implementation of other directions offered by the single Judge Justice S M Subramanian which included holding a review meeting to identify all encroachments as well as unauthorised occupation of Corporation lands and initiate appropriate action.

Earlier, Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that the vigilance cell in the Corporation had just three officers and hence sought a stay on the order directing their transfer.

But conceding to the delay in implementing the directions offered by the single Judge including installation of CCTV cameras in the vigilance cell, the advocate general assured the court that the process of implementing all the directions had commenced and would be competed in due course.

The bench while granting the stay came down heavily on the Corporation officials by raising a volley of questions.They sought to know as to what stopped them from implementing the single Judge’s direction despite it being passed in August. They also sought to know as to whether there has been a drop in Corporation officials receiving a bribe and allowing unauthorised construction as well as constructions in total deviation of the approved plan.

In all, the anti-corruption wing in the Corporation has become a corruption-ridden wing, the bench held.

The singe Judge in his order observed that corruption had become the norm in Greater Chennai Corporation and ordered the mass transfer of all police officials in its vigilance cell within four weeks to be replaced with a new set of officers with proven integrity and honesty.