GoM wants govt discretionary powers removed
The Centre, rattled by a spate of corruption charges against top functionaries, has worked out a comprehensive plan which includes scrapping of the discretionary quotas of Central ministries and state governments.
A Group of Ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has listed a few immediate steps to be taken, which sources said would soon be submitted to the government. The GoM is likely to meet again on Monday. Besides scrapping of discretionary quotas over land, appointments and allocations by Central ministries and state governments, the GoM may recommend that any officer charged with grave corruption charges be sacked straightaway, and that sanction for prosecution of such officers be decided within three months. Sources said the arbitrary use of discretionary powers, many loosely defined, is blamed for many high-profile corruption scandals.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi too had suggested such a measure in her addr-ess to the AICC plenary in December last year. Intere-stingly, discretionary quotas exist in 38 of the 54 Central ministries. These have often been misused for both political reasons and personal benefit.
Appointments and transfers of bureaucrats, instructions to change file notings to favour corporate houses, powers to determine change in land use and even its allotment, as well as project approvals are among the undefined powers enjoyed by ministers. If the GoM recommendations are acce-pted, all these may eventually go.
Sources also said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written to all chief ministers, except for seven states where the institution already exists, suggesting they institute the office of Lok Ayukta.
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