Govt guidelines to handle plaints against CVC

New Delhi: The central government has started the process of framing guidelines to handle grievances or complaints against the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), the personnel ministry has said.

There are no guidelines in place to handle complaints against the CVC, the ministry said in response to an RTI query. The personnel ministry’s assertion comes amid a raging controversy in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) involving its director Alok Verma and special director Rakesh Asthana.

The two warring officers, who have alleged each other of impropriety, have been sent on leave by the Centre.

On Friday, the Supreme Court asked the Central Vigilance Commission, that exercises superintendence over the CBI in corruption matters, to complete within two weeks its inquiry into allegations against Verma.

“It is informed that as no guidelines to handle complaints against Central Vigilance Commissioner were in place, a process for framing guidelines to handle grievances or complaints against him has been initiated,” the ministry said. It added that ‘suitable acti-on’ will be taken on complaints once such guidelines are in existence.

The ministry was responding to an RTI application filed by whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjiv Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi had sought copies of correspondences from the personnel ministry related to a plea filed by him on July 15 last year with the president’s secretariat. The president’s office forwarded it to the personnel ministry on July 27.

The plea was filed by Chaturvedi invoking Section 6 of the CVC Act that empowers the president to refer cases of allegation of misconduct against the CVC for enquiry by SC.

The secretariat had forwarded the application to the Personnel Ministry for necessary action.

Chaturvedi had alleged that the CVC closed cases of corruption involving senior functionaries in Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Chaturvedi, who has sought probe against Central Vigilance Commissio-ner K.V. Chowdary, had sent documents, running into almost 1,000 pages, in support of his claim to the office of the president. He shared the deta-ils of seven cases with the president's secretariat.