India's ruling party calls for anti-corruption campaign

Sun, 19 Dec 2010

New Delhi - India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi Sunday outlined a plan to fight corruption as she defended the government, which is beleaguered by a series of financial scams running into billions of dollars.

Gandhi's address to the Congress' annual conference in New Delhi came as the party goes through its toughest political test in the six years it has been in power.

Authorities are investigating a mobile licensing scam which has resulted in a loss of up to 40 billion dollars to the exchequer - described by the media as India's biggest-ever corruption case.

The Congress-led coalition has also faced opposition heat over corruption allegations in organizing the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

Gandhi said her four-point plan to "intensify the battle against corruption" included instituting a new system of fast-tracking corruption cases involving government officials and politicians.

"Such cases drag on interminably and undermine public confidence and trust," she said.

She also called for ensuring transparency in public procurements and contracts, through legislation and well-defined procedure.

Gandhi asked ministers to relinquish discretionary powers for allocating land, noting that such powers bred corruption and underlined the need for an open and competitive system for exploiting the country's natural resources.

"There should be no tolerance for corruption and we must confront it," she said.

Gandhi said the party "solidly" supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and attacked the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling the parliament through the entire winter session that ended last week.

Opposition parties including BJP had disrupted proceedings daily, demanding a cross-party probe into the telecom scandal. "Parliament cannot be held hostage to political blackmail and political expediency," Gandhi said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358873,party-calls-anti-corruption-campaign.html.