Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Helpline has not registered a single FIR despite receiving thousands of calls, an Right To Information (RTI) reply has revealed.
The RTI also disclosed that Anti-Corruption Helpline receives between 10,000 and 30,000 calls every month, and in some months the number goes up to 50,000.
The RTI application that led to the disclosure of these remarkable numbers was filed by Delhi resident and RTI activist Vedpal.
Vedpal had sought this information from the Department of Administrative Reforms. In his query, Vedpal had asked the department as to how many calls it had received between June and December and what action was taken on them. He had also asked how many complaints the Anti-Corruption Branch had receive directly.
“From July this year till 9 December, no action has been taken on any of the complaints made through helpline 1031,” said Vedpal.
Earlier, on an average around 35,000-40,000 complaints were registered every month but with time, the number of calls decreased.
According to the RTI response, in June, the helpline answered 34595 calls and in July it was 30242.
The helpline answered 19,698, 44,758 and 17,546 calls in August, September and October respectively.
“In November, the numbers were 10,208 and 858 till 3 December but no action has been taken on any of the calls,” said Vedpal.
He said crores of rupees were spent on establishing and advertising about the helpline on FM channels and now no action is being taken.
“A huge amount of public money was spent on setting up its call centre and after spending so much nothing is being done. Has every officer in Delhi turned honest now and is there no corruption left in the department?” asked Vedpal.
ACB chief AK Meena said, “The anti-corruption helpline has been converted into dengue helpline.”
The helpline number 1031 has 60 lines and has received three lakh complaints so far. Many complaints were accompanied by evidence in the form of photographs, audio recordings and videos.
Complaints have been made against Delhi Police, municipal corporations, education department, transport department, Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Fire Services.
The call centre location has been kept secret by the state authorities and all complaints were being forwarded to the anti-corruption branch till July.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had re-launched the helpline at Talkatora Stadium on 5 April.