Display ACB toll-free number in all govt offices; CS Sameer Sharma to officials

Vijayawada: The chief secretary Sameer Sharma directed the officials to display Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) toll-free number '14400' in all the government offices right from village level.

Addressing a review meeting at Secretariat on Tuesday, he said the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had launched ACB's call service number 14400 in June, 2021, to prevent corruption in government offices. He said the application and call service number developed by RTGS (Real Time Governance Society) will help to prevent corruption and stressed the need for creating awareness among people on the ACB helpline number.

The chief secretary said that people can download the app through Google Playstore and lodge a complaint with ACB along with necessary photos and documents.

Earlier, ACB director Ashok Kumar made a power point presentation on 14400 helpline. He said the department received 5,114 complaints through the call services during 2019, 67,427 calls during 2020 and 45,990 during 2021. In 2022 so far 31,419 calls were received. He said of the total 276 complaints received so far by ACB from June 1, 2021, 98 cases were settled.

Special chief secretaries Vijayanand, Rajat Bhargava, Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, MT Krishna Babu and others were present.