R. Sri Kumar, Central Vigilance Commissioner, on Saturday sought the support of Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) to improve Project Vigeye — a citizen-centric initiative to fight corruption by joining hands with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).
Delivering a lecture on ‘Leveraging technology — CVC’s project Vigeye’ organised by the IISc. Alumni Association at the IISc. here, Mr. Sri Kumar said there were many aspects of Vigeye where better technology could improve efficiency and make the project people-friendly. With IISc. support, the project could make significant changes in the lives of common people and could go a long way in curbing corruption, he said.
The project had been working well since its launch in December 2010. Now, it was possible to send SMSs only through 100 mobile handsets.With the advent of Android technology and Blackberry there was a need to upgrade the system, besides linking them to mobile handsets to make the facility accessible to common people, he observed.
“Conduct research and perfect the technology to improve audio and video quality, besides enabling fast and accurate processing of complaints, as transparency and technology are essential to bring about greater accountability in governance,” he said.
Mr. Sri Kumar said that Project Vigeye was providing a user-friendly platform for interaction between the CVC and citizens.
“If we have one lakh Project Vigeye volunteers in six lakh villages acting as the eyes of the CVC, that will result in a strong movement against corruption,” he noted.
The World Bank commissioned Harvard University to study Project Vigeye and it was expected to submit its report soon, he said.
Complaints
On complaints being received by the CVC, he said that 50 per cent of them would not come under their purview and about 30 per cent was about grand corruption. “There is an urgent need to popularise the project, make people stand up against corruption and lodge their complaints fearlessly,” he remarked.
Multiple channels
Under Project Vigeye, citizens have multiple channels to air their grievances and submit complaints to the CVC. According to the CVC website, people can send a blank SMS or message VIGEYE to 09223174440 to get an SMS containing the registration link to their mobile. People have to register first before filing a complaint. They can also submit complaints on www.cvc.nic.in
