Hyderabad: The crackdown initiative started by the Anti-Corruption Bureau in the state against corrupt officials is revealing corrupts that have been misusing their powers and government position demanding bribes from people.
In a new twist, Revenue Department officials from across the state were caught red-handed allegedly demanding bribes varying between 2,000 to Rs 8 lakh from people visiting the Tahsildar’s office for work related to land records depending on the necessity and status of the case, TT reports.
Any person who refuses to pay expressing their inability to fetch out the amount, the officials threatened them to stall their work and that it shall remain in the state so if they still refuse to pay them the demanded amount.
But things turned ugly for these officials when few people approached the ACB officials against these corrupt officials.
This began the preliminary inquiry which led to swift action entrapment of these errant staff.
So far, this year, as many as three Tahsildars, 10 Village Revenue Officers (VROs), two Surveyors and a Deputy Tahsildar, Village Revenue Assistant, Deputy Mandal Surveyor, Mandal Revenue Inspector and an administrative officer posted at the office of Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) have been caught demanding accepting bribes.
These corrupt officials were caught from Medak, Mahabubabad, Ranga Reddy, Rajanna Sircilla, Jagtial, Jogulamba-Gadwal, Kamareddy, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, Komaram Bheem-Asifabad, Khammam, Jayashankar-Bhupalpally and Jangaon.
A deputy mandal surveyor, Nampally Srinivas of Palakurthy mandal in Jangaon had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 on March 11, 2019, to conduct survey and fix the boundaries of land belonging to a soldier and his brothers.
K Naga Jyothi, K Shiva Srinivas, Tahsildars from Siddipet District were arrested two months ago for demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 6.50 lakh.
According to sources, few VROs were responsible and found to be collecting the bribe at the Tahsildar’s office or near a tea stall or soft drinks shop outside the office.
According to Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths, Keshampet Tahsildar V Lavanya who won the best Tahsildar award in 2017 was found that she withheld passbooks of 11 farmers for allegedly failing to pay her the bribe she demanded.
As huge as Rs 93.5 lakh unaccounted cash and 400 grams of gold stored in shelves, beneath clothes was seized from Lavanya’s residence in Hayathnagar raid that was carried out by the ACB sleuths on Wednesday night. The officials found the cash stored in open shelves and beneath clothes.
A farmer Mamidipally Bhaskar revealed the dirty business run by these revenue departments officials who deliberately removed land records from online to re-upload only after being paid the bribe.
Lavanya reportedly had demanded a bribe of Rs 8 lakh to update online details related to his land measuring 9.07 acres.
In other case, Kethavath Phulu Nayak, an Assistant Pension Payment Officer of the Department of Treasuries and Accounts, was caught red-handed accepting bribe for sanctioning pension to the complainant.