I take a special pride in my native place i.e Golden valley of Kolar district as it gave birth two of our nation's greatest personalities.
guess who ??............. what ????.......... did u just say its me ?
oh wow...good guess, close one, but its not me :-)
One of them is former Lok Ayukta Justice N Venkatachala. It all started in 2001 (just when I joined my degree), he took over as Lokayukta chief of Karnataka (Anti corruption task force established in 1984). Well....honestly, I didn't even know such a post existed in our constitution. Thanks to all its previous incumbents. Our corrupt govt officials had a free reign on public's hard earned tax money.
A survey, entitled India Corruption Study, conducted by Transparency International had ranked Karnataka the fourth most corrupt State in India.
After a rather passive existence of 20 years, things suddenly changed in 2002, when Venkatachala galvanised the institution in to a modern day crusade.
Ssssssshhhhhhhhhhh !!!! Attention greasy palms, Lok Ayukta Justice N Venkatachala is in action"...... was the hush hush talks behind the scene.
He stole the headlines of all leading news papers in the nation with his sting operations against corrupt govt officials. Since day one of his taking over the office, his blitzkrieg started....relentless fight to end the corruption continued...unabated....day and night...traveling length and breadth of the state ....showing no sign of mercy or fear....trapping the officials red handed (some of them included rank of ministers). Despite being 76 year old, despite receiving many threats and escaping many attempts to kill......in his four and half years of service, it is said that he did not take a single day off. He remained unfazed and undeterred to his cause. Number of complaints the office of Lokayukta was receiving dramatically increased from 20-25 per day to 200-250 per day while Venkatachala was in tenure. In just four years in office, he exposed more than 50,000 cases of corruption.
No wonder, over five lakh people had then written to Dr. Abdul Kalam to extend his tenure as Lokyukta. Human rights activists went on dharnas to support his cause.
Finally, govt gave up and awarded him the state's highest honour, 'Rajyostsava Prashasthi' and 'Varshada Kannadiga Award'. Buoyed by his public success, a kannada movie based on his service 'Lancha Samrajya' is on the making. Venkatachala is said to have put the fear of god in the Karnataka administration.. He has truly set a high bar for subsequent occupants of the position.
All I suggest is, Lokaykta has to be renamed as 'Venkatachala Task force or Venkatachala Anti Corruption Bureau' for future generations to know his contributions. Hats off to him !!!!!
The other person is from the very neighborhood where I was brought up in BEML nagar. My schoolmate and senior...fondly remembered by us as Machan....Manjunath Shanmugam who shot to national fame in 2005.
He was a marketing manager for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) who was murdered for sealing a corrupt petrol station in Uttar Pradesh.
While working for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Lucknow, he had ordered two petrol pumps at Lakhimpur Kheri sealed for selling adulterated fuel for three months. When the pump started operating again a month later, Manjunath decided to conduct a surprise raid around November 19, 2005 where he was brutally murdered by corrupt goondas. Manjunath was a very bright student in his class who went on do MBA in IIM(L). True to its saying, 'A Man with Principles is a Man without opportunities', despite having lucrative offers from MNCs and firms abroad, he chose to serve the nation and joined public sector unit IOC.
This incident inspired several students at IIM, IIT and other institutes and a pan IIM initiative, "The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust" was registered on 23 February 2006, Manjunath's birth anniversary.
With immediate objectives of fighting the case, they have a broader agenda of improving governance in Indian public life. The 'Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award' was instituted in his honour by the Government. It carries a citation and a Rs. One Lakh Cash Award, to honour those who have reported and worked to rectify systemic corruption.
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