THE LOK Satta Party (LSP), founded by former civil servant Dr Jayaprakash Narayan in Andhra Pradesh a year-ago, has announced the constitution of an independent People’s Commission Against Political Corruption. The commission will be first of its kind in the country. It will inquire into the charges of corruption against those people who are in high positions just to make the people and the government aware about the facts.

Former Lok Ayukta Justice Ramanujam will head the Committee in capacity of chairman. It will receive complaints on undisclosed assets of politicians and public servants, their acts of corruption, the practice of favouritism and nepotism and incidents of cheating and fraud as well. It would conduct the thorough investigation into the complaints and suggest concrete recommendations to the government and credible non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on such matters.

Lok Satta national coordinator Jayaprakash Narayan announced it on December 9 at a meeting convened to mark the International Anti-Corruption Day at Hyderabad. He said that Lok Satta has taken the initiative in constituting the commission because successive governments have been failed in restricting political corruption in the state. The other members of the People’s Commission would be named within a week.

He further said that people, who are interested in lodging their complaints, could mail them to P O Box No: 100, Hyderabad-500004 or make a telephonic call on 040-23232711 (from 8 am to 9 pm). They can even send e-mails to combatcorruption@loksattaparty.com.

A website, named as www.combatcorruptionindia.org, was also launched where the party would publish information about candidates’ disclosure about their assets and liabilities before elections.

Jayaprakash Narayan said that the commission would act independently to conduct a thorough and impartial inquiry into all the complaints received from the people. It would also give specific recommendations to the government and to credible non-government organizations and associations as well.

He assured the common people, “It is a time we can do our bit to uproot political corruption. Give information about corrupt politicians. Those indulging in corruption should be jailed. Your identities will not be revealed for sure”. According to him, public servants are siphoning off public money to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore daily in the country and Rs 100 crore in the state.

He said that the corruption is a bigger crime than murder. “If a person commits a murder, only the family members of victim suffer whereas corrupt leaders make the entire nation suffer,” he added.

On this occasion, LSP also felicitated two former MLAs Narra Raghava Reddy (CPM) and former minister Simhadri satyanarayana (TDP) by recognizing their integrity and honesty in the public life.

Earlier, LSP had put forward a demand that the state government should request the High Court for constituting a special court to inquire the allegations over amassing wealth made against one another by chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu.

Both the leaders have reportedly made severe allegations of corruption involving thousand of crores money against each other in the assembly. Narayan further said that the government should admit such allegations as the First Information Report. Both the leaders should submit proofs of their allegations to the special court that should be headed by a special prosecutor with expertise in legal matters and impeccable track record.

He wondered how both leaders have maintained silence after leveling series of allegations against each other. He also expressed concerns that despite the legislations in place, a majority of the legislators including ministers did not submit the documents disclosing their assets and liabilities to the Speaker of the house.

According to a study conducted by LSP, about 211 MLAs in the 294-member assembly did not submit their asset details even at least once. Seven legislators including the Speaker, Chandrababu Naidu, N Rajyalakshmi, T Devender Goud, Ch. Rajeswar Rao and Y Ramakrishnudu submitted papers disclosing details of their assets all the four years.

 MV Pratap Appa Rao and Ch. Rajeshwara Rao, the members of the assembly ethics committee did not submit their financial statement even once.

Even the chief minister himself submitted the papers only in the year 2005 and 2006. The legislative affairs minister K Rosaiah submitted only once. Ministers Konatala Ramakrishna, Mandali Buddha Prasad, K Jana Reddy, Galla Aruna Kumari, D Srinivas, Sabita Indra Reddy, Maganti Babu, J Geeta Reddy, Pinnamaneni Venkateshwara Rao and Kanna Lakshminarayana have submitted their financial details to the Speaker of the house.