ACB fails to draw informers

MUMBAI: The Anti-Corruption Bureau is in a soup as several people are refusing to lodge complaints or provide information about cases of disproportionate assets without any firm assurance of a reward from the agency.

One person who visited the ACB’s office at Lower Parel on Monday to lodge a complaint about a case of disproportionate assets went back without doing so as the sleuths failed to promise him a reward. “He simply walked out after we told him that there’s no information about the reward,” said an ACB officer.

The reward-against-information scheme was announced in March by Deputy Chief Minister RR Patil, who also holds the home portfolio.

Patil had said in the budget session of the assembly that any person providing “quality information” about disproportionate assets amassed by public servants would be rewarded. His announcement was probably prompted by the probe into two cases in which a senior police inspector and a senior officer of the state water supply department were found to own properties worth Rs1.34 crore and Rs1.14 crore, respectively.

So far, the government has failed to back Patil’s announcement with an effective policy response.

“We are unable to assure any complainant about rewards as we are clueless about this scheme,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Vilas Tupe told DNA on Monday.