37 grievances against corruption in the defence recruitment process

Hyderabad: Ministry of Defence in its latest report states that 37 cases out of 800 grievances were related to corruption in the defence recruitment process. Grievances asking for relaxation in norms of Defence jobs topped the list with 74 grievances. This was followed by 42 grievances, relating to private people encroaching defence lands.

The defence department which release a grievance hotline last year saw 4246 grievances registered with, for the period of 1 April 2019 to 31 July 2019. Out of this 4246 grievances, 800 were by the Ministry of Defence analyzed to understand the root cause of grievances and to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism. The complaints were majorly related to corruption, land issues, recruitment and service issues.

Corruption Related Grievances

Corruption in recruiting process was the highest with 37 total grievances registered. Under this 16 grievances were only about corruption in recruitment process of Military Engineering Services (MES), National Cadet Corps, Military Hospitals and Sena Bhawan. Sixteen grievances were registered for corruption by Cantonment Board officials. Apart from this 23 grievances were about fraud by MES, Border Road Operations, Air Force and ordinance depot.

Land Related Grievances

Encroachment or unauthorized construction of defence land by public topped the list with 42 cases, followed by 34 cases related to land records, construction and mutation of house in cantonment boards. For not receiving or issues related to compensation for land acquired by Defence, 26 grievances were registered. Fifteen grievances were registered stating forceful eviction

Recruitment Related Grievances

Most of the grievances were raised regarding delay in getting joining dates and result dates adding upto a total of 37 cases. This was followed by 34 grievances related to examination; admit card, filling of application, website issue, caste certificate, documents and vacancies.

Service Related Grievances

Request for releasing payment dues and pensionary benefits topped the services category with total 45 grievances, followed by 36 grievances regarding promotion related issues. Complaints regarding termination amounted to 34 grievances, while request for compassionate appointment had 33 cases registered.

Based on these analysis the joint secretaries of Department of Defence will come up with a plan on what changes should be made by the departments.

India's President Rajnath Singh in an event said that the then Defence Secretary, Sanjay Mitra had ordered a detail analysis of all the complaints as an investigative report stated of corruption in Integrated Air Command and Control System.