On “Corruption” – by Dr. Vinaya K. Singh, Ph.D.
Nowadays our Country is struggling with problem of corruption which has affected law and order, judiciary and development and is in the process of paralyzing them. Because of distress and our society becoming uncivilized, the SC has commented that every one is looting our country India and we need some stringent laws to make people more civilized. It even went a step further and proposed for uncivilized law (hanging in lamppost) to check the corruptions. I believe they are not wrong on assessing the situation of country on corruption. There is something alarming which compelled SC to comment like this.
Corruption is one of the biggest problems in UP that don’t make development visible. It has become part of life of every UPaite. They think this is necessary for the progress. Takers think this is very much important to live life king size and givers think this is must to get their work done. This way even an illegal work becomes legal. Each and every person of government department knows that but nothing works in controlling this. Author’s research shows the situation is so worse that if a person doesn’t have a job where he/she can’t get any bribe, his/her job would be no longer respectable. People have forgotten the phrase, “honesty is the best policy”. Everyone needs money to live beautiful life but this is not the way to get that. This impacts the development and also involves the exploitation of the needy people. Students of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur complained to the President of India about the corruption in getting a passport, which has so rooted in the police department that even it doesn’t spare the students too, who are the future of our state and country. It is untrue that this is unknown to the police officers but they don’t want to stop because their one of the source of incomes may be snatched away. There are several plans government offers to the villagers but are they really implemented with 100% going out to them? Also, there are government programs like Kanya Dhan Yojana, Indira Awas Vikas Yojana, Unemployment Allowances etc., but are they really effective? Author observed, no.
Author made a comprehensive survey on these programs and his observations were that the selected candidates for any program were happy to share half the money as gift to government officials for making them into the awardees list. This is because they say it is free money and getting it without any hard work so what is wrong in sharing it. Head of Village (Gram Pradhan) collects about half the money of the benefits from each candidate and distributes it to the government officials from bottom to top in hierarchy. Officials are happy because they are getting butter (malai), apart from salary and other benefits, too. But does there anyone who truly thinks that how the hard earned money of tax payers getting looted? Government must be responsible in ensuring that each and every penny of tax payers goes to the needy and not shared among the corrupt government officials, otherwise it would be injustice to taxpayers. To ensure this, we may need effective anti-corruption system that every day monitors the day to day activities of government officials and elected representatives. Non-Government Organizations (NGO) can play a great role in this and government may need to assign budgets for this purpose.
There are many government institutions that are mainly established to look into corruption cases but they aren’t yet so effective since corruption is there too. The NGO can be involved in controlling the corruption by help of their sting operations based on public complaints, and net the officials red-handed. These operations should take place every day at every level viz. Village, Block, Tehasil and District. But the rule should be not to spare any individual, if he/she is caught red-handed, on any cost. He/she should be asked to resign from the job without any mercy, even if he/she caught for taking a single penny or small amount. With the dismissal from the job and imprisonment, a penalty can also be fixed based on the seriousness of the corruption. A DM can also be fixed responsible and punished for such corruption when it’s found that the government official involved in corruption is state government employee worked under his/her district and amount involved in corruption is more than certain limit. Only transfer or suspension could not solve this problem. This may need some stern action to remove the evil of corruption from our society. Even the DMs in serious cases are just getting the transfer as punishment, but they should be dismissed from duty immediately, if they are either found involved or unable to check the corruption.
Special courts only to deal the cases of corruption could also be set-up to help finish such case with fast-pace. There may be occasions in such cases where elected representatives or lok-sevaks at top level constitutional positions may pressurize authorities to spare the corrupted individuals because of their link to them, but in doing so they may also need to be exposed and punished. The NGO can play here role also in trapping them and disclosing the telephonic conversations related with the case. Making a DM accountable for serious corruption cases at district level, may pressurize him/her to check the corruption at the district level. For a serious corruption case in district, an inquiry can be ordered after DM’s suspension and if found lapses on his/her part, he/she must be asked to resign or otherwise dismissed. Transfers or suspensions are not going to solve the corruption problem since they have become part of life of government officials, and not the punishments anymore.
Author had a discussion with one of his US friends on corruption and his friend informed him that if a police officer in US is found indulged in corruption, he will loose his/her job without any mercy shown to him/her and with that he/she will loose all the government benefits too. Guess what, if he/she is being sued, he/she might land into begging since he/she could be ordered to pay the penalties and losses due to corruption to plaintiff from his/her savings. He/she would become bankrupt. Based on the level of corruption, he/she may be jailed too. Now you can imagine why a police officer in US can’t dare to break the law & order for a bribe.
Also, government must make it compulsory to audit the bank accounts and properties of government servants and elected members including their family members every year to check the corruption. If their earnings found more than their sources of incomes, they must not be let go Scot free in any circumstances. Also, to develop a corruption free society, we need to ensure our new generations are honest and we may do so by initiating a process of taking oath of honesty from schooling. But after all, all these need people to unite together to vote for the right candidates and elect the dutiful representatives.
Please see below for reports on corruption in India:
