PM, Sonia declare guilty in scams will be punished

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) Pledging to take corruption
head on, the Indian National Congress-led UPA Sunday promised
to punish the guilty in scams and assured the people that it
would demonstrate through actions and not words what it meant.
As the coalition stepped into its third year in its
second term, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi released
"Government of the UPA: Report to the People" against the
backdrop of corruption denting its image over the past several
months.
Singh asserted that the guilty in scams will be
punished through due process of law and steps will be taken to
prevent them in future.
In her brief remarks in the report, Gandhi said, "We
will take the issue of corruption head on and demonstrate,
through actions, and not words, that we mean what we say."
Significantly, the Prime Minister touched upon the
issue of governance and corruption which, he said, has been
the focus of a great deal of attention in 2010-11.
"The developments have caused many concerned citizens
to worry about the state of governance and the pervasiveness
of corruption. These are legitimate concerns and the UPA
government is determined to take corrective action. We will
punish those that are guilty through the due process of law,"
the Prime Minister said in the report which was released at a
function at his residence to mark the second anniversary of
UPA-II.
He also gave an assurance that the government would
take steps "to prevent such developments in future".
The Prime Minister recalled the "conjunction of
several developments" related to the 2G spectrum, procurement
and contracting issues related to the Commonwealth Games and
similar issues in state governments.
He said many of these issues have surfaced because of
"our system of institutional oversight and a free press" and
to that extend reflect the strength of the system.
Singh said,"We have initiated a number of measures to
bring about systemic changes that would help in improving
governance and curbing corruption and we hope to see quick
results of these efforts."
The report card talks at length about the constitution
of GoM on corruption in January this year and the introduction
of the whistleblower bill among the measures initiated by the
government to "tackle corruption".
It said that the terms of reference of the GoM include
considering all legislative and administrative measures
necessary to tackle corruption and improve transparency
including relinquishing discretionary powers enjoyed by
ministers at the Centre.
The Prime Minister said the government would leave no
stone unturned in providing a clean and effective governance.
"We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts at
providing clean and effective governance to the people," he
said.
The report card emphasised that the ToR for the GOM
also include fast-tracking of all cases of public servants
accused of corruption and ensuring full transparency in public
procurement and contracts, including enunciation of public
procurement standards and a public procurement policy and
introduction of an open and competitive system of exploiting
natural resources.
"As one of the impediments felt in tackling corruption
is lack of adequate protection to complainants, the Public
Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the
Disclosure Bill, 2010 (whistleblower bill) has been introduced
in the Lok Sabha (lower house of Indian Parliament) on 26th
August 2010," it added.
Noting that India has ratified the United Nations
Convention Against Corruption, it said, "with a view to
ensuring full compliance with this Convention, the Prevention
of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public
International Organisations Bill 2011 has been introduced in
the Lok Sabha on 25th March 2011."
The report also covers many specific sectors like
economic situation, agriculture, rural development, education,
external and internal challenges, railways and environmental
issues.
Touching on economic situation, the Prime Minister
said that the country witnessed an unprecedented 8.5 per cent
growth from 2004-05 to 2010-11 despite severe global financial
crisis in this period and described the performance in
agriculture as "particularly satisfying".
He said the financial crisis though slowed down the
growth rate to 6.8 per cent in 2008-09, the economy rebounded
with a "robust growth of 8.6 per cent in 2010-11."
Noting that food inflation was a major concern in the
last financial year, the Prime Minister said his government
took several measures to address the problem and continued its
efforts in 2010-11 and "intend to do more in the future."