Vimal Kumar Harsoor (Veeresh), a 34-year-old activist from Kalaburagi district, has planned to go an 1,800-km solo bike ride to Delhi with a message against prevailing corruption and irregularities in recruitments across the nation.
Vimal Kumar Harsoor, who hails from Farhatabad, holds a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering. He used to organise motivational classes and sell motivational books at educational institutions during his initial days. And, for survival, he has been selling cosmetics and kitchen items on his specially designed motorcycle, which he will be using for his arduous journey for a noble cause.
Vimal Kumar Harsoor will kickstart his bike ride from Kalaburagi on Saturday to mark the International Anti Corruption Day.
After reaching Delhi, he plans to stage a protest at Jantar Mantar for a week and try to submit a memorandum to Union Ministers and members of Parliament.
Speaking to The Hindu on Friday, Mr. Harsoor said that the turn of events in 2021 following the PSI examination recruitment scam, in which many government officials and policemen were arrested from Kalaburagi and other districts, prompted him to launch the campaign against increasing corruption in government recruitment exams.
The PSI exam scam has not only affected students but also their families. There are many heart-wrenching stories of candidates who wrote the exams honestly and but lost an employment opportunity due to the misdeeds of a few people, he said.
“I was deeply disturbed over the fact that every government department is riddled with corruption. Whatever I have earned these years by selling books to students, I want to give it back to society, particularly students. So, I have decided to launch a solo bike ride to Delhi,” he said.
Referring to the long list of scams reported in India, including the 2013 Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh, and the recent Patwari scam, again in Madhya Pradesh, the PSI scam and KEA scam in Karnataka, Mr. Harsoor said that the government should make serious efforts to end corruption and malpractices, at least in recruitments, and take steps to bring in more transparency in recruitment examinations. Otherwise, youths will completely lose faith in the system, he added.
The activist plans to hold awareness campaigns against corruption and interact with people along the route.
After a week-long protest at Delhi, he will continue his movement against corruption by visiting other States.
“Naturally, my mother is worried about the risk factor and is reluctant to send me on the solo ride. I know the difficulties, but I am confident that I will succeed in my campaign,” he said.
