ACB sleuths raid Tehsildar offices in Andhra

The ACB sleuths conducted searches on various Tehsildar and other government offices across thirteen districts in Andhra Pradesh. Cash, important files were recovered by the officials during the searches.

Krishna: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) conducted surprise checks at various government offices, particularly revenue-earning wings, in different districts of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, unearthing large-scale 'irregularities' and 'unaccounted' cash running into a few lakh rupees, official sources said.

Cracking a whip on culpable officers on Tehsildars, the Anti Corruption Bureau(ACB) sleuths have conducted surprise checks on various departments across the thirteen districts on Wednesday. The ACB sleuths have found many irregularities and inconsistencies and booked cases on the corrupt officials.

In a statement, the ACB officials revealed that they have conducted raids on 9 Tahsildar Offices, 4 Sub Registrar Offices and 1 Town Planning office and another Mandal Parishad Development Officer in the thirteen districts.

Acting on the instructions of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to get rid the State of corruption, ACB Director General PSR Anjaneyulu ordered all the district officers to conduct surprise checks.

The ACB raids were the first major action initiated pursuant to a study by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, the sources said, adding the drive will continue in the coming days.

The tehsildar offices, sub-registrar offices and town- planning offices were identified as some of the main places of corruption in the state government and the recent study by the IIM-Ahmedabad had suggested stern measures to stem the rot.

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Several private individuals were found to be working in some offices illicitly while certain others were allegedly acting as conduits of government staff for collecting illegal gratification, an official release from the ACB said.

Surprise checks were conducted in nine tehsildar offices, four sub-registrar offices (Revenue Department) and a town- planning office (Municipal Administration Department), according to ACB Director General P S R Anjaneyulu.

No arrests have been made, though. We will prepare relevant reports and submit to the government for necessary action on the irregularities found, Anjaneyulu said.

In one tehsildar office at Ibrahimpatnam near Vijayawada, Rs 2.28 lakh of unaccounted cash was seized from the staff.

In another in Prakasam district, Rs 40,752 was seized while in Visakhapatnam district over Rs 27,000 was confiscated, according to the ACB release.

In the sub-registrar office at Piler in Chittoor district, a sum of Rs 7,79,840 was found with document writers and two private persons.

In East Godavari district, a sum of Rs 69,830 was confiscated during the surprise check at the Bikkavolu SRO.

In Kadapa, the sub-registrar was absent in her office but she engaged two private persons for collecting bribes and doing official work unauthorisedly. Unaccounted and inexplicable amount of Rs 30,790 was seized from the office staff, document writers and private persons, the ACB added.

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With agency inputs