One look at the Telangana state can make it clear that the dynamics of governance are long gone. Until now, many irregularities have come to light in the TRS government. Leaders’ illegal acquisitions of lands, contractors committing frauds, the corrupted officials, at times, the collaborative acts of the contractors and the officials were also exposed. There are allegations that officials and leaders who are supposed to serve the people are colluding and robbing with the Quid Pro Co attire. Some IAS and IPS, however, are dedicated to doing what fits the TRS agenda. While the government is promising on making Hyderabad a cosmopolitan city, one IPS’ behavior is surprising to everyone.
The one man who came as the major, commissioner, is now almost running a parallel government in ministerial circles. He was an officer in one department and now has five in his basket. He is Vishwajit Kampati.
Who is IPS Vishwajit Kampati?
Vishwajit Kampati is of the 2013 batch UPSC. The work profile of Vishwajit has always been controversial. In 2016, he was the ASP at the Medaram fair where he arrested an ITDA doctor and senior journalist Pasham Yadav, who was later released. He was seen giving warnings to people passing comments like ‘what if you are a doctor? or journalists? After manhandling a doctor, the doctors in the state protested, which led to the patients suffering. People demanded to keep Vishwajit away from the Medaram premises for the entirety. After that Rajanna was going to Sirisilla district as SP. There are allegations that cases were made against Dalits in the name of the sand mafia. Demands were made to transfer the SP before the SC Commission. Complaints to the DGP were flooding. With this, Minister KTR brought Vishwajit on deputation from his home district to a key Greater Hyderabad in his own municipal department.
The effect of Kampati in TRS
In 2018, Vishwajit took over as Director of Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management at GHMC. According to the DOPT regulations, one cannot go off the track from Mother Department for more than three years. But three years after the period, with the help of TRS leaders, Kampati managed to make his way into more departments as the mayor and commissioner. It is learned that since the arrival of the new mayor Vijayalakshmi in 2021, there was no one to question him at any level, and most of the work has been going on without even her conscience.
The thief and Cop on the same side
Since Vishwajit has been working more than a general TRS public representative should work, the government started assigning additional responsibilities as Director of Strategic Nala Development Programs, along with Transport, Advertising, and the Moosey River Development Corporation. Vishwajit also undersees the bids for vehicles here. The government also appointed him as the vigilance chief to find out if any irregularities have taken place, or criticize how the police will do their duty, and surprisingly, Vishwajit is playing the roles of both Police and thief here, where he is never going to get caught. Who should investigate if there are irregularities in the Musi River Funds? Will the director of these six departments have the ability to detect irregularities taking place in my area? Or if there is a huge misuse of money in cleaning, will he be able to get out of that business as he is the Director of Waste Management? there are soo many suspicions around. The people of Hyderabad are questioning how vigilance duty can be done with all these responsibilities.
The chaos with hoardings
The officer targeted all the illegal advertising hoardings in the city. Taking it to an extreme level, they even took down the hoardings at the press club which were highly respected, and even the ones in the Panjagutta cemetery which carry out service activities. There is a rumor that all these have been removed and looted by corporate entities. There are allegations that Metro, as well as the minister, was planning for advertising boards to be used by an acquaintance of a minister.
Huge profit with fines!
Stating that the flexies are causing pollution, they announced a complete ban on advertisements. A fine of Rs. 1000 was imposed on people who put up the ‘TOLET’ boards in front of their houses. Thus, from 2020 to date, Rs 350 crore has been collected from the citizens of the state. The fines did not stop even during the COVID times. A fine of Rs 5,000 has to be paid if someone writes their names on the walls. The information currently shown is actually competing with the traffic police on how much money they collected as fines. There is a debate amongst the leaders that this is illegal. Vishwajit joined at work during the TRS tenure, there is criticism that the EVDM system was shut down and moved to Dubai. During the Plenary, hoardings, banners, Flexi, party flags, and flags were displayed everywhere in the city.
The return gift to Vishwajit?
TRS lost heavily in the East and South in the second GHMC election. There has been criticism about the Vishwajit affair that officials are in general not working properly, taking the condition during the floods as an example. That is why there is a political debate going on that the TRS party was given a return gift by the people in the GHMC elections.
How to expose Vishwajit’s irregularities?
When there are discussions about how to get rid of corruption and irregularities in GHMC? Here, the allegations are that the officer who came on a deputation to hand over transparency to the administration was handed over all the important departments and continued to be the most crucial director of vigilance. It is said that Vishwajit has been tampering with the vehicle bidding procedure by making sure that people who are close to him will win the tenders. Along with this, the other allegations include discrimination in the imposition of fines and robbery. Leaders, employees, and citizens who know about GHMC are of the opinion that the only way to get out of all this is to have a trial with a retired High Court judge or an Acting District Judge.