Thiruvananthapuram: Vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB) on Wednesday launched a statewide surprise inspection, codenamed ‘Operation Parppidam’, to detect corruption and irregularities related to building construction in local self-govt institutions.VACB is simultaneously conducting inspections in 68 offices, including all six municipal corporations, 30 selected municipalities and 24 grama panchayats.The action follows information it received alleging widespread corruption and procedural irregularities in granting building permits, issuing occupancy certificates and building numbers, assessing building tax, assigning UAC numbers for unauthorised constructions to facilitate tax collection, and processing applications for regularisation of illegal buildings in panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations.The inspections began at 10.30am across state as part of VACB’s Project Zero, a proactive vigilance initiative aimed at preventing corruption in public service delivery systems. The operation is being carried out on vigilance director Manoj Abraham’s directives.According to VACB, information indicated some officials were accepting bribes to approve buildings constructed in violation of building rules, including unauthorised additional floors and structures that failed to comply with mandatory setback, floor area ratio (FAR), coverage, parking and fire safety norms.It received information that certain private consultancies involved in building construction were acting as middlemen by collecting bribes from applicants and transferring money to officials through online and UPI transactions.Vigilance director urged the public to report information on corruption through VACB’s toll-free number 1064, phone number 8592900900 or WhatsApp number 9447789100.
