Man strips to fight against graft

Employees of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) were on Wednesday taken aback when a Class Four employee, who was asked to  pay bribe for the information he sought, began to undress in front of everyone.

Ram Kumar took off  his shirt and was about to strip when other employees intervened and forcibly took him away from the spot. Senior officials had to intervene to settle the matter. According to sources, Ram Kumar, a sweeper in the corporation, had taken a loan of Rs 25,000 from his provident fund a few months ago to marry off his sister. According to Ram Kumar, though he had repaid the loan, deductions were still being made from his  salary. On Wednesday, he approached Zakir, an official of the accounts department, to know about the status of the loan.

“Zakir demanded a bribe of Rs 2,000 to give details.  He was not ready to listen to me.  I  barely get anything after the deductions from my salary,” he rued. A desperate  Ram Kumar informed the official that he was left with nothing but only his clothes he was wearing and started undressing.

Ram Kumar's “protest” indeed was an eye opener to the  senior officials who in no time swung into action and promised to look into the matter.