CM Bhagwant Mann Will Eradicate Corruption in Punjab: Arvind Kejriwal
AMN / CHANDIGARH
Punjab’s new Chief Minister, Aam Aadmi Party’s Bhagwant Mann, announced the launch of an anti-corruption helpline. Mr Mann, who took oath yesterday, promising that he would not “waste a day”, said the helpline number will be launched on March 23, the death anniversary of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh..
“The anti-corruption helpline number will be my personal number… If anybody asks for bribe, send audio and video on that number,” he said.
“I am not threatening any govt employee as 99 per cent of govt employees are honest but 1 percent of such employees are corrupt which has rotted the system. Only AAP can clean this corrupt system,” he added in the tweet.
The number will be exclusively for people to upload videos of corrupt officials demanding bribe for their day to day work or indulging in other malpractices. Such officials, he later said, will be given exemplary punishment.
Eradication of corruption from Punjab was one of the key promises of AAP, which traces its birth to the anti-corruption movement of freedom fighter and Gandhian Anna Hazare.
AAP won 92 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said his government has eradicated corruption in the national capital and his counterpart Bhagwant Mann and his ministers will now run an honest government in Punjab as well.
He welcomed Mr Mann’s announcement of releasing a WhatsApp number on March 23 — iconic freedom fighter Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary — for people to share recordings if they are asked for bribe by government officials.
“Next time, if someone asks you for a bribe. Don’t refuse. Just take out your phone and record the incident and share it on the number that will be released. It will be his (Mann’s) personal WhatsApp number. We will initiate strict action against that official,” Mr Kejriwal said during an online briefing.
Mr Kejriwal recalled he had done something similar in his first stint in Delhi that lasted 49 days.
“When I had formed the government for the first time, I had also issued a WhatsApp number and during those 49 days, we took action against 30-32 officials by sending them to jail. Corruption was eradicated in Delhi and the phone became the biggest weapon of empowerment of the common public,” he said.
Mr Kejriwal claimed that the Prime Minister later issued an order and took away the Anti-Corruption Branch from the AAP dispensation.
“It’s been 75 years since we have gained independence but we still have to pay bribes. All parties have indulged in corruption. Aam Aadmi Party is the first party to run an honest government. Kejriwal and his ministers, Mann and his ministers are not corrupt. We don’t want ‘hafta’ (protection money). Just like we eradicated corruption in Delhi, we will end it in Punjab as well,” he said.
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann took oath Wednesday as Punjab Chief Minister. The party won 92 of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab
Meanwhile Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has raised the bar with his message to the people to expect visible change within a month; to the party MLAs to forget about Chandigarh and stay put among the constituents to serve them, and to the rank and file to maintain decorum amidst any provocation.