Updated on Monday, December 29, 2008, 00:00 IST

Hyderabad, Dec 29: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Andhra Pradesh has prepared ground for prosecution of at least 15 IAS, IPS and IFS on corruption charges but the state government is yet to accord permission for proceeding against them, sources in the agency said.

The ACB has submitted a dossier listing the names of these officers and the charges against them, mostly relating to amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income, to the government for approval.

"We shall proceed against these officers as soon as we get the nod from the government," a top ACB official told media in Hyderabad on Monday.

Only one IPS officer, J G Murali, has been prosecuted by ACB in the last one year though as many as 38 cases are pending against 15 officers, the official said.

Many heads of government departments are also on the ACB list for possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

"In 2009, our main target would be the AIS (All India Services) officers and the heads of departments. Our focus would be on cracking down on corruption at high places," ACB Director General R R Girish Kumar has said.

The sources said ACB could not proceed against the AIS officers as the state government has not given the requisite go-ahead for that.

"We have been constantly writing to the government for securing the approval to launch cases against the top-ranking officers. But there has been no response from the government for many months now," a top ACB official said.

Even in instances where senior officials had been booked for cases related to graft and criminal misconduct, the government's "failure" to act on the ACB reports has enabled these officers to continue in their posts, the sources said.

A case in point is the senior officials of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation booked for allegedly accumulating wealth through illegal means, they said.

Though relevant reports had been submitted to the government, no action against the officers came forth, the sources added.

Bureau Report