Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions at the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy has said that the Government will amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to ensure punishment to bribe givers too.
Addressing the National Editors’ Conference, organised by the Press Information Bureau here on Sunday, the Minister said the Act is not clear about punishing the bribe givers, including private companies who are involved in corruption.
“There is grey area in the Act on bribe givers,” he said and added that the Act is being amended to punish the bribe giver also. “Till now, only bribe taker was being punished,” he said. He, however, did not give any timeframe for the passage of the amendment in Parliament.
Answering questions on corruption, Narayanasamy said service delivery is the breeding ground for corruption in the country.
He hopes that the Service Delivery Bill, which is being cleared by Parliament, will ensure that services are delivered in a time-bound manner. He said the Centre is pushing all States to adopt e-governance so that there will be paperless offices in future.
The Minister said the Government has framed guidelines to assess officers at 15 and 25 years of service, as also for their continuation and retention in service. “Let’s not keep a deadwood in our offices,” he said adding that the appraisal system will ensure that the quality of service will improve.
Justifies CBI raid
Denying the reports that Congress President Sonia Gandhi has summoned him to convey her displeasure at the raids at DMK leader M.K. Stalin’s house, Narayanasamy said the Government does not interfere in the works of Central Bureau of Investigation.
Though he termed the timing of the raid as “unfortunate”, he said 18 premises were raided by the CBI on the same day in connection with the case of anomalies in import of cars.
Justifying the process, he said that Stalin is also a citizen of the country who is supposed to abide the rules. “There is no arm twisting involved,” he added.