New Delhi:
Over 5000 complaints of corruption in various government departments have been received through Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) e-initiative 'vigilance eye'.
People have registered complaints through the project Vigeye, a special website launched to encourage people to report corruption by uploading videos, audios or raising complaints online through it, CVC officials said.
The project was launched by the former Central Vigilance Commissioner PJ Thomas in December 2010.
Speaking at a recent conference, Vigilance Commissioner R Srikumar had given examples of how common citizens brought corruption cases to the notice of CVC using Vigeye and how action was taken against whom the charges were proved.
"In our fight against corruption, participation from every stakeholder namely, employees, officers, customers, citizens etc. was important. Empowering citizens to participate in vigilance was necessary", Mr Srikumar said.
"There are 255 districts in the country where rule of law does not work and extremism had taken deep root. The rule of law should be upheld. Project 'Vigeye' is an example of participative vigilance. The application, which can be downloaded, enables any person to act against corruption, instead of simply grumbling about it," he added.
Mr Srikumar said that more than 5000 complaints had been received under Vigeye. "There was a need to take this system to the next level by putting in place necessary infrastructure like a call centre to handle the large number of complaints," he added.
According to officials, Vigeye provides a more user-friendly platform for interface between the CVC and the citizens who may have suffered at the hands of corrupt officials and who want to disclose information about such illegal activities.
Mr Srikumar also favoured the importance of unions in the offices. He said that people take unions as anti-establishment.
"However, unions were necessary, since they pointed out what was going wrong in the organisation, People on the street were asking for more probity in public life. CVC with about 300 staff alone cannot fight corruption. Participation of every stakeholder was needed," the Vigilance Commissioner had said.
According to the information on the CVC's Vigeye portal, there were about 7448 registered users.
"The Vigeye is getting good response. We will enhance capabilities of organisations involved in dealing with it," a CVC official said.