How Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and a top cop have netted 43 corrupt officials in one year

Assam Government’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption has launched a silent but consistent war against government officials indulging in corrupt practices. Headed by Special DGP GP Singh, who earlier had a stint in the National Investigative Agency, the vigilance cell of Assam government has been hyper active ever since Himanta Biswa Sarma took charge as the chief minister of the state in May 2021.

Under the current regime, 43 public servants have been caught red handed while accepting bribes, reveals a government data. Of these 30 have been nabbed this year, recording a massive spike in the arrests. In the month August this year alone, 11 government officials have been arrested.

According to GP Singh, this has been possible because of the chief minister’s zero tolerance approach to corruption in government officials. Following this directive, the directorate launched massive public awareness campaign in multiple languages—Assamese, English, Hindi, Bodo, and Bangla—among public to gather information against public officials. Social media platforms were used and phone numbers, email IDs and social media handles were shared so that people can send inputs on corruption anonymously.

“The use of social media has been a game changer. Initially, people were not upfront. But as they saw direct action being taken on their inputs, the faith in the government grew. The consequence has been more arrests,” says GP Singh. Chief Minister Sarma also attributes public support to the success of this mission. “Our motive is to ensure facilitative governance without corruption. People have observed this changed approach and they are becoming stakeholders in this mission. Together we have built a corruption-free governance structure,” says Sarma.

More importantly, the government has been focussing on improving the number of charge sheets. While between 2018 and 2021, 23 charge sheets were filed, this year the number jumped to 36—nearly six times hike from the average of last four years. “We have upped the ante in terms of submission of charge sheets. The next objective is to improve convictions,” says Singh.

Year	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Number of charge sheets	6	7	5	5	36

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption is not a police body though the personnel for this department are drawn from the police. The directorate reports directly to the chief secretary of the state. Singh has been heading this body since August 2020. “It generally takes maximum two years to turn around an organisation. The officers and other staff must be made stakeholders in the process. Of course, the support from the government has been crucial in our progress,” says GP Singh.