ACB caught between complaints and red tape

The anti-corruption body sits on a large number of cases as it does not have the ‘power’ to investigate

Smita Deshmukh and Anupam Dasgupta

After exposing the multi-crore slum scam, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been flooded with complaints by slum-dwellers, who tipped off the agency on financial irregularities in several rehabilitation projects. As many as 90 cases have been filed with the ACB, but it is in no position to take steps.

As per the government norms, the ACB can’t act unless the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) or the housing department officials formally registers complaints. “The connivance between a section of the SRA officials, BMC staff and Mantralaya mandarins on the slum rehabilitation projects needs to be exposed,” said a senior ACB official on condition of anonymity.

Sources in the Mantralaya said that the housing department did little to make it mandatory for the SRA chief to record formal complaints with the ACB. There seemed to be no co-ordination in spite of the series of meetings held between the ACB top brass and housing secretary SS Kshatriya.

While declining to comment on the “merits’’ of the complaints, ACB additional commissioner of police (Mumbai unit) Pradnya Sarvade told DNA, “We have got 90 complaints, all of which points to financial misappropriation in slum rehabilitation projects.” The poor response of ACB in such cases was exposed when activist Shailesh Gandhi sought the status of the probe using the Right to Information Act.

The ACB has received 86 complaints, out of which it is investigating just three.

“I was told that it would take them about a year to investigate. The ACB admitted that it did not have the staff to investigate the same, which clearly means that the rest of the cases will never be touched,” said the activist.

Implemented a decade ago with the promise of providing 8 lakh houses by 2000, the SRA could provide houses to only less than 10 per cent of that number. “SRA has flouted all development norms and rules to grab public land. It has now asked for a Special Investigation Team to probe the scam, but refused to give me the report,” said Shailesh.