Telangana: Karimnagar sees rise in ACB cases against government officials

At least 15 officials caught this year; Revenue and Police Departments top the list

Karimnagar: Though there is nothing new in government officials demanding bribe, corruption among officials seems to have gone up in the recent past. Fifteen officials were trapped by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) within a span of five months in the district.

Though officials of 13 Government Departments, which have direct connection with the public, have frequently been involved in corruption, the percentage is high in the revenue and police departments. In a recent incident, ACB officials had arrested Irrigation Department.

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Executive Engineer Arram Reddy Amarender Reddy for taking a bribe of Rs 60,000 from a contractor at his residence in Karimnagar on Friday night. Working in the Irrigation Division-7 of Rajanna-Sircilla district, the EE had demanded the bribe to clear bills of Rs 50 lakh of the complainant.

In another incident, two officials working with the Irrigation Department’s Division-6 office in Sultanabad were trapped on April 23. Office superintendent Dupala Sridhar Babu had demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 from one of the office employees Ijaz to prepare bills for his sick leave (Half Pay Leave) of 88 days.

On April 11, Senior Assistant of District Treasury office, Jagtial, Raghu Kumar was trapped while accepting a bribe of Rs 7,000 from a retired employee to clear pending bills. In a similar incident, Jammikunta Indira Kranthi Patham (IKP) community coordinator Pasaragonda Suresh was trapped while accepting a bribe of Rs 10,000 from a village organisation assistant Swapna on April 8.

Officials belonging to revenue, police, transport, electricity, Panchayat Raj, irrigation, commercial tax, municipal, medical and health and others have been caught on corruption charges. When compared to other departments, the corruption is high in revenue and police.

While a total of 61 government officers were trapped in connection with 39 cases from 2021 to 2024, 15 officials were arrested so far this year alone. Five officers were trapped in January, one in February, four each in March and April and one in May.