Government officials in Kerala to be trained on how to prevent corruption under a panel guided by Jacob Thomas IPS, a DGP ranked officer. Former Food Safety Commissioner Anupama and IAS officer, Prashant Nair to lead the panel.
In a bid to make Kerala corruption-free, Dr Jacob Thomas has proposed a scheme to train government officers to be vigilant against corruption. Government officials joining office post public services exams will be trained t remain vigilant against corruption, prevent corruption and nepotism and be made aware of punishment for corruption. IAS officer and former collector Prashant Nair and former Food Safety Commissioner Anupama will head the trainers.
This would be a first of its kind anti corruption move in the country. Close to 32,000 government officials will be trained each year. The Vigilance panel will reimburse food and travel expenses borne by officer taking part in the anti-corruption training that focuses on good governance.
The scheme will begin training officials from February 27th onwards. Officials who will act as trainers have already been trained. With honest officers like Anupama and Prashant leading them, the Vigilance hopes to meet a greater success rate in eliminating corruption. The training sessions will take place at Institute of Management in Government or at the Government’s 26 training institutes in Trivandrum. According to the Vigilance, such a training of a government official before he/ she takes office is compulsory.
Officials from various departments like school and institution heads, tax officials, Panchayat secretaries and those joining as IPS and IAS officials will be given training under this scheme. What is corruption, how to combat it and punishment for the offence will be the various topics on which these officials will be educated on.
Cover image courtesy: Facebook page of Anupama IAS and Prasanth Nair IAS
