Confiscated bungalow of corrupt official converted into orphanage

Taking its fight against corruption forward, the ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has opened an orphanage in the confiscated bungalow of senior government official Raghuvansh Kunwar accused of corruption.

A case was registered against Kunwar, a motor vehicle inspector (MVI), after he was caught in the act of taking a bribe of Rs50,000 (Dh2,752) in September 2008.

On Wednesday, the social welfare minister Manju Verma inaugurated the orphanage in the confiscated bungalow which is located in Kankarbagh locality of the state capital. Right now, 30 orphans have been lodged there.

“The new orphanage will provide shelter to 50 orphans. The government will be providing education and also imparting training in skill development to the children during their stay there,” the minister told the media

Highlighting the government’s zero-tolerance policy against graft, the minister said their fight against corruption would continue.

The bungalow was confiscated last year after the accused officer charged with amassing huge amount of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income lost his case in the Patna High Court. After completing all legal formalities, the bungalow was finally converted into an orphanage on Wednesday.

Kunwar is the fourth senior government official whose bungalow was confiscated by the state government after corruption charges against him came to light. In September 2011, the state government had opened a primary school for unprivileged children in the seized bungalow of a senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shiva Shankar Verma who worked as secretary in the minor irrigation department.

The next month, the three-storeyed building of another official Girish Kumar, an assistant in the office of Patna District Magistrate, was confiscated and converted into a plus-two residential girls school. A total of 240 girls are enrolled in this school today.

The bungalow of another official Narayan Mishra who served as the director general of police, Bihar, was confiscated in August 2012 after the corruption charges were proven against him. This bungalow was converted into a special school for mentally-retarded children. At present, 50 children are enrolled in this school.

The ruling Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has declared war on corruption. Under this campaign, more than 200 government officials have been fired so far, while over three thousand have been arrested on graft charges in the past five years.

The government plans to confiscate the property of 21 corrupt officials who earned huge amounts of wealth through alleged fraudulent means. All these corrupt officials were caught by vigilance sleuths in the last 10 months.

The accused officials include district transport officers, district welfare officers, sub-divisional officers, revenue officials, assistant engineers, district managers, mukhiyas, police inspectors, clerks and teachers. They all were caught by vigilance sleuths for having made money through illegal means.

According to a report from the vigilance department, many corrupt officials have procured land and flats in prominent Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.

Recently, the anti-graft sleuths probing a disproportionate assets case against a senior education department official were startled to see his ‘golden’ love for his wife whom he ‘gifted’ with huge amount of gold jewellery. During a raid conducted at the residence of the tainted official, sleuths recovered 230 gold earrings and tops, 53 rings, 36 bangles, 30 chains and 6 necklaces, all made of gold and weighing around 1.5kg. The raids were conducted Wednesday.

What puzzled the sleuths was that most of the gold and silver jewellery recovered were meant for his wife according to the man. Apparently, the official had gifted her jewellery each time he received a bribe, sleuths concluded

source : Gulfnews