New Delhi: Observing that "corruption has moved from softer areas to more dangerous areas", Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) P Shankar today (Jan 16, 2004) said the "middlemen menace" in Railways was baffling the Commission.

"Corruption has moved to more dangerous areas as softer areas are no longer available and the best example would be the cases of Telgi (stamp scam) and (Satyendra Kumar) Dubey," an engineer with the National Highway project who was killed for exposing corruption, Shankar said after the release of a report on corruption by the Centre for Media Studies.

Taking up the case of Railways, which was cited by the survey as one of the areas where middlemen menace was "acute", he said instances of corruption in Railways has "baffled" him.

The Commission would consult the Railways Central Vigilance Officer (CVO) and was planning to adopt more stringent measures to get rid of this menace, he said.

"As such, the Commission does not have the jurisdiction to intervene in these matters. But we are working on it to put some of the major departments like Railways under some system," he said, adding he would take up the matter of corruption in areas like booking of tickets with the Railway CVO.

Terming the citizens charter brought out by various State Governments as "irrelevant" and outdated, the CVC said he would take up the matter with the Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Department to give it more teeth to make it effective.