Implement UN Convention Against Corruption: Anna to PM

New Delhi: Anna Hazare on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to implement the UN Convention Against Corruption and recommendations of AN Vohra Committee to tackle organised graft.

In a letter to Singh, the activist said both the UN Convention, to which India is a signatory, and the Vohra Committee had raised concerns and fears about corruption but no action has been taken.

"I request your good self and your cabinet to read the UN Convection document which was signed by our government and also the Vohra Report again. It is possible that due to your busy schedule you may have forgotten the details of the convention and the findings of the report.

"I request you to implement the recommendation of the Vohra Report," he said in the letter. He said both the UN Convention and Vohra Committee report in unison raise concerns and fears but there is no action. "It is a matter of grave concern," he said.

Questioning the alleged reluctance in establishing mechanism to combat corruption, he asked if it was prudent to assume that the government does not want to strengthen such institutions.

"Till rampant corruption is not nipped in the bud, the future of our country would be bleak," he said. Hazare said corruption is much like the plague, as the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had noted, which infects democracy, judiciary and day-to-day functioning of the government.

The activist noted that in 1993, Vohra Committee studied about the nexus between criminals, politicians and bureaucrats and discussed about criminal gangs enjoying political patronage. The report revealed a nexus among gangs, police, bureaucrats and politicians.

"Our judiciary which was established to look into individual crimes is unable to look into such organised criminal nexuses. These nexuses have muscle and money and are very well connected with the politicians.

"Corruption has reached enormous scale and all the mechanisms established to fight the menace have proved futile. It is necessary that we confront this plague which has made the mechanisms and anti-corruption laws defunct," he said.