While the Central Bureau of Investigation has stepped up its anti-corruption drive in the past three-and-a-half years with the number of corruption cases registered by it going up significantly each year since 2003, its efforts to book some senior Central and State Government officers are yet to be sanctioned by the Ministries concerned.

According to information made available in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, as many as 91 cases were pending at the end of June for sanction for prosecution.

Also, as of July 15, eight cases against officials in the rank of Joint Secretaries and above were awaiting sanction for prosecution from various Central Ministries and Departments. According to the rules, the CBI needs the sanction from the Ministry concerned to initiate proceedings in case of officials in the rank of Joint Secretary and above.

Sanctions are awaited from key Ministries of Finance, Railways, Home Affairs and Communication, each of which are found to be sitting over half-a-dozen or more cases in which the CBI has sought permission to initiate prosecution proceedings under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.

The Finance Ministry tops the list with 23 cases awaiting sanction for prosecution. Out of these, 12 are in the banking division, six in the income-tax department, four in the insurance division and one in the Department of Customs and Excise.

The Ministry of Railways follows second with nine such cases.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is to clear seven cases, while the Ministry of Communication has to approve six cases.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare too, is yet to sanction proceedings in five cases.

Four more central Ministries, namely, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievance and Pensions, are yet to give the CBI the go-ahead signal in three cases each.

Ministries such as coal, commerce, human resources and the Department of Atomic Energy have just one case each, which need prior sanction.

The CBI had registered 680 corruption cases in 2003.

In 2004, the figure went up to 794 and reached 866 in the year 2005.

In the current year, between January and June 2006, the central investing agency has already registered 341 corruption cases, according to the official data.