Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, whose report had unearthed the 2G scam, on Monday issued a challenge to the income-tax authorities, while he was in the city for a public talk. Why, Rai asked, was IT not investigating the sudden increase in the assets owned by elected representatives?
Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Vinod Rai, whose report had unearthed the 2G scam, on Monday issued a challenge to the income-tax authorities, while he was in the city for a public talk. Why, Rai asked, was IT not investigating the sudden increase in the assets owned by elected representatives?
"Who is to question them? Why does Income Tax not question them?" asked Rai, who was the inaugural speaker at a series of public talks organised by the Public Concern for Governance Trust, an NGO. Rai stated that he as CAG had tried to look into the assets of elected representatives, but without success.
"We looked at around 70 elected representatives whose wealth rose 300 times according to the affidavits filed by them in 2004 and 2009. We had sought details from the election commissioner. We were told that we could not access an individual's financial details and that it was not our business," Rai said.
The former bureaucrat also spoke about the effectiveness of the 2G expose. Rai said that the earlier government thought it could "brazenly and blatantly do what they wanted as they have arrived for five years and no one can do anything to them in that period."
In his talk, Rai also dealt with the issues about transfers of officials, and the need for government officials and politicians to be honest about property declarations. He also said that government institutions needed to be independent. "There was a time when the director general of police could do something. Now he does not have any power. Institutions need to be independent. An institution does not know its power. It needs someone to guide it," said Rai.
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