Meena announces new anti corruption helpline

The fight between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung regarding the control of Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) scaled a new height on Thursday after ACB chief Mukesh Kumar Meena declared the <g data-gr-id="41">Anti Corruption</g> Helpline of the Delhi government ‘defunct’ and announced a new helpline. 

It would receive calls regarding “corruption” from “general public” against the “departments of Delhi government”. Hours within the announcement of the new helpline, the CM’s office issued a strongly-worded reaction questioning the legality of his appointment into the ACB and threatened legal action for his initiative.  “The anti-corruption helpline 1031 stands as 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 the anti-corruption helpline 1031 and statement on issuing new helpline numbers would be dealt with legally,” said a press statement issued by the CM’s office. 

“The government of NCT of Delhi once again puts on record that Meena, IPS, is not the ACB chief. He is just assigned to look after the work of training and monitoring of under-trial cases at ACB. S SYadav, IPS, is the chief of ACB and any decision regarding the ACB as its chief is to be taken by him only,” added the statement. 

It further added that Meena’s statement on the helpline is a sheer case of impersonation and the Delhi government will take action for the same against him. He 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.

Earlier in the day, Meena issued a press statement declaring “New <g data-gr-id="28">Anti Corruption</g> Helpline” for Delhi. 

“No information of the calls on 1031 is being shared by Delhi government with the ACB. The issue was shared with Delhi <g data-gr-id="38">government</g> but they are still not sending any information to the ACB. 

Consequently, the ACB is unable to take any legal action on these complaints,” said Meena, launching two helpline number 011-23812905 and 011-23812906. 

“These helplines are installed in the office of the ACB so that quick legal action can be initiated on the complaints received through the <g data-gr-id="36">above mentioned</g> helplines. In addition to this, any information related to the corruption in any of the Delhi government departments can also be shared on my office <g data-gr-id="31">land-line</g> telephone number 011-23815906 on working days during office hours,” added the statement. 

According to <g data-gr-id="30">sources</g> over 50,000 calls on 1031 went unheard due to the ongoing tussle between the Chief Minister and Najeeb Jung regarding the ACB.