Open Forum

New Delhi, 23 July 2008

Tackling Corruption

POLITICAL WILL IMPERATIVE

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

A significant portion of the people living below the poverty line (BPL) in India paid bribes to access healthcare, education and water, among other facilities. This was the startling findings of a joint study carried out by Transparency International (TI) and the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) in 2007 which estimated that one-third of the BPL households paid Rs 900 million as bribes in the year for availing one or more of the 11 public services covered in the survey.

The study revealed that the police topped the chart in corruption in these 11 public services. Of the 5.6 million BPL households that interacted with the police, a whopping 2.5 million paid Rs 2150 million as bribe for some work or the other and most of them went to the police station for a simple registration of a complaint. Land records and registration services came second in terms of monetary contribution as nearly 3.5 million BPL households paid Rs 1224 million as bribe to get their work done.   

The study also found out that the public distribution system (PDS) was not readily available as 5.36 million BPL households had to pay a bribe (or use a contact) to avail services that were meant for them. A majority said they had bribed officials or staff to gat a ration card. Similarly 4 million BPL households had to bribe hospital staff to get service like getting admission, getting a bed, diagnostic services and getting an OPD card.  

Apart from this study, another startling report last year found that foodgrains worth Rs 31,500 crores had been siphoned off the PDS. Bluntly, people living below the poverty line were estimated to have been cheated 53 per cent of the wheat and 39 per cent of the rice the State had procured for them. It clearly revealed that the PDS has become a state-sponsored largesse for black marketeers, a lot that includes babus, ration shop owners and various other people, including political leaders and police officials.

These revelations clearly point to the exploitation of the impoverished and backward sections of society as also the poor governance of our socio-political system which breeds corruption. Obviously the lack of education and awareness may have allowed such wanton corruption to thrive. But it is indeed tragic that at such a juncture when the country is moving forward, such high levels of corruption should retard the development process.

Moreover in a country like ours which talks of high ethical standards, it is indeed strange that corruption has penetrated almost all sections of society, both in rural and urban areas, with the Government remaining virtually a silent spectator.

In fact, cases of corruption are being flashed in the media almost everyday. The corruption of the police force, from the lowest to the highest levels, is well known and the Government’s initiative in tackling this has not been successful in spite of all talks of reform. This is more pronounced in the Hindi belt such as Bihar, U.P., Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh etc. where money power rules over everything.

The unethical practices and the decline in moral standards have corrupted a greed-based society and this is not limited to police and administrative officials but also percolated to educational institutions. The former Vice Chancellors of Himachal Pradesh, Utkal and Viswa Bharati Universities were implicated on charges of corruption while the Bihar universities have the dubious distinction of awarding fake degrees. It has been estimated that more than 10,000 persons from Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh obtained such post graduate degrees.

Even the armed forces have lost credibility owing to widespread corruption in their ranks. Also illegal gratification by some judges has had a damaging effect on the judiciary, which even a few years back was not known.

It is indeed unfortunate that there is hardly any deterrent effect on corrupt officials as the process of conviction is slow and has not made an impact. Besides, corrupt officials go scott free as sometimes they have links at the highest levels and manage to evade punishment. Consequently, corruption has been flourishing with more and more instances coming to light. The major problem in controlling corruption is because political leaders, who profess probity in public life and proclaim to curb corruption, are not serious in this regard. Special mention may be made in this regard to police officials who work hand-in-glove with political leaders to aid and abet corruption.

Drastic changes and reforms are imperative to weed out unethical professionals and corrupt practices from the administration, including the police force, academic and public institutions. These should include speeding up conviction of corrupt officials, stringent punishment and stoppage of promotion (for at least 5 to 10 years) for all Government officials, crucial postings for clean officials, specially those in the police, (and not on considerations of closeness with political leaders), removal of all corrupt officials from procurement/purchase in Government offices, hospitals, police forces etc. it is also necessary to give more power and teeth to the CBI, enhancing its strength and empowering it to make checks on hospitals, State police stations and wherever necessary suo motu.    

With the introduction of the Right to Information Act (RTI), the Government has tried to bring in some measure of transparency and accountability in the administrative process. But most people do not know to make use of the RTI for which there is need to generate awareness campaigns at the district and block levels by the Government in collaboration with NGOs and CBOs.

The voluntary organizations, which are funded for different projects, should also be given money for projects related to anti-corruption campaigns, specially in the rural areas, jointly with the panchayats and police, if necessary, and awarded for highlighting cases of corruption.  

The Prime Minister and the former President, Abdul Kalam have been talking of corruption as a major challenge before the Government. A few months ago, Manmohan Singh told the conference of Chief Ministers and High Court Chief Justices, “apart from pendency and delayed justice, corruption is another challenge we face both in Government and the judiciary.” The agenda paper at the conference cited the mountain of pending corruption cases against Government officials and stressed the need for special courts for their speedy disposal.

A suggestion regarding nyayalayas proposed that trial courts at the intermediate panchayat level would ease the load by dealing with simple civil and criminal cases, specially those relating to corruption. Over 5000 such courts are proposed to be established and they would dispense justice within 90 days but the Bill is yet to be passed.

Thus, such innovative steps need to be taken without further delay if corruption in public life has to be tackled effectively. Curbing corruption can only become a reality if the corrupt are brought to book and punishment awarded at the earliest. This can only mitigate the sufferings of the poor and impoverished sections of society who happen to be the worst sufferers of a corrupt system.

It is not difficult to visualize a corruption-free society but for this to fructify, efforts have to be made by all sections of society to inculcate moral values in our life and shun materialistic standards and practices. But more than anything else political will at the highest level is imperative.---- INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)