Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged the ‘victims of corruption and bribery’ to show courage to expose their tormentors and make sure that the corrupt officials are served ‘government food’ (in jail).
He was speaking after launching a State-level pilot project for the online application for building construction permits that aims to cut bribery and speed up the process here on Saturday.
Mr. Vijayan said the courage of the victims was critical in fighting corruption.
“If they are bold enough to lodge complaints with the authorities concerned, their tormentors will have to eat government food,” he said.
The victims should not sit back fearing some harm would come to them if they complained, the Chief Minister said.
Graft by employees
Mr. Vijayan, who projected the new online application process for building construction as yet another initiative of his government to fight corruption, claimed that corruption was far less in Kerala than other States. He said that corruption on the part of people’s representatives had been wiped out. But corruption by government employees thrived, the Chief Minister said.
Linking bribery to self-respect, he said that those officials who led a luxurious life using bribe money lacked self-respect. “Those who respect themselves and value their honour do not plunder others; they live within their means.” These plunderers did not command people's respect either.
Employees warned
Asserting that the new online building permit system was being implemented to mainly fight the large-scale corruption in the present system of awarding permits, the Chief Minister cautioned those who were already thinking of ways to bypass it. They would have to face the harsh consequences, he warned.
