Meena announces new helpline numbers, government threatens action

NEW DELHI: The LG-CM tussle over the functioning of Delhi government has reduced governance in the city to a joke, the latest casualty being the drive against corruption. A day after M K Meena, designated as chief of the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) by Najeeb Jung, called for shutting down helpline 1031 because calls were not being routed to it, he announced two new helpline numbers, drawing an immediate reaction from the Arvind Kejriwal government.
“Meena’s statement on the helpline is a sheer care of impersonation and the Delhi government will take action for the same against him,” said an official statement. “Meena was posted at the ACB in an illegal manner at the behest of the Prime Minister to scuttle the anti-corruption drive of the Delhi government.”
The statement added that “the anti-corruption helpline, 1031, is the helpline for all anti-corruption complaints in Delhi. No other helpline is working for this purpose. Any attempt to send out confusing statements on 1031 and on issuing new helpline numbers would be dealt with legally.”
Meena had said the new numbers were launched as the public was suffering in the absence of any action on their complaints and calls made to 1031. The two round-the-clock helplines mentioned by him were: (011) 23812905 and 23812906.
Brushing aside these numbers, the Delhi government reiterated that “Mukesh Kumar Meena, IPS, is not the ACB chief. He is just assigned to look after the work of training and monitoring of undertrial cases at ACB.”
“SS Yadav, IPS, is the chief of ACB. Any decision regarding the ACB as its chief is to be taken by Yadav only. Meena’s statement on the helpline is a sheer case of impersonation and the Delhi government will take action for the same against him,” said the government statement.
ACB sources on Thursday claimed that more than 2 lakh calls have gone unheard as these weren’t transferred to ACB. Meena had on Wednesday gone on the offensive, saying that the government should shut down the helpline. “If information is being suppressed, it is an an offence. They should either shut down or hand over the helpline to us if they are finding it difficult to run. They should also remove the billboards and advertisements for the same. The government is trying to make the ACB toothless,” he had alleged.
Kejriwal had re-launched the helpline, which is open 24X7, at a public gathering at Talkatora Stadium on April 5 this year. The call centre location was kept secret by the state authorities and all complaints were being forwarded to the ACB till a month go when Meena was appointed as its chief by Jung.
The 1031 helpline has 60 lines and receives thousands of calls each day. Many cases were registered by the ACB on these complaints with victims providing evidence in the form of photographs, audio recordings and videos. Complaints have been registered against Delhi Police, municipal corporations, education department, transport department, Delhi Jal Board and Delhi Fire Service.