Probity in Governance is an essential part of the New Scheme of the Syllabus for the Civil Service Examination. This blog aims at promoting a lively discussion among the students of our Institute. Please engage in a fruitful debate. This comes in General Studies paper V. ( Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption)
“Probity in governance is an essential and vital requirement for an efficient and effective system of governance and for socio-economic development. An important requisite for ensuring probity in governance is absence of corruption” Justice Jeevan Reddy in his consultation paper presented to the Advisory Panel on Strengthening of the institutions of Parliamentary Democracy. (http://lawmin.nic.in/ncrwc/
(http://www.academicjournals.
1 . Corruption is an abuse of public resources or position in public life for private gain. Do you agree that the level of corruption is very high in India? Can you explain a few reasons for this high level of corruption?
2 .Enormous sums spent on Development expenditure particularly in procuring materials and services provide much scope for corruption like in the Bofors Deal, the Choppers deal etc., To prevent this we need Integrity, uprightness and honesty ; Defensible process and Fair and equitable treatment. Have you any comments to make?
3 . “Originally, the ethics framework identifies general core values that should be common to all member states. These values are the rule of law (“lawfulness”), impartiality/ objectivity, transparency (“openness”), accountability, professionalism (“expertise”), and duty of care, reliability (“confidence, trust”) and courtesy (“service principle”). If it is believed that these are the core values, then they should be fully recognized in every country.” MS. Radhika
How far have these values been adopted in India? Have you any suggestions to make?
4 . The major determinants of administrative conduct in the Public Sector include
1) The political construct of which public administrators are a part
2) The legal framework
3) The administrators and public employees who are responsible for the provision of public services
4) The citizens and users of public services that are a part of the civil society.
Examine how far the components of our political system ( like coalition compulsions, adversarial attitudes of political parties with the Vote Bank politics in mind, the judicial processes like undue delay in deciding cases, absence of independent investigating agencies, sporadic functioning of Civil Society and an apathetic citizenry and the presence of a chaltahai attitude ) aggravates corruption.
In terms of moral decay, India’s present phase is similar to the collapsing years of the Roman Empire. We are no empire, yet we have the vices that felled one of history’s mightiest. As one chronicler of the Roman saga put it, “the spirit of the times was to corrupt and to be corrupted”. Another noted that “the emperors were monsters of crime”.
Sounds familiar? Come up with any system, any project, and the Indian genius finds a way to abuse it. Be it elections, defence procurement, loan waiving, even garbage collection, the guiding spirit is to corrupt and to be corrupted. In our legislatures and police stations, monsters of crime prevail. One in a hundred crimes catch national attention, then the monsters lie low for a while. The hullaballoo dies down and the monsters return to their ways.
If all parties and all citizens agree on one thing, it is that Raja Bhaiya is a dangerous man. When he stands for election from his Kunda constituency, people get so scared that it becomes a virtual one-horse race. BJP’s Kalyan Singh once called him Kunda ka goonda. Yet Raja was in two BJP cabinets, Kalyan’s and Rajnath Singh’s, and then went on to join the cabinets of Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav. Several cases against him were withdrawn. Eight still remain, five of them involving brutalities.
I was quoting from the Indian Express of 10th March13 by Shankkar Aiyar
test
1. Corruption is prevalent due to excessive controls and bureaucratic red
tape. Karnataka is one of the few states which have sought to control the menace of corruption and business cartels by introducing e-tendering in several govt. projects. The citizen is aware of the services being tendered. rates quoted and the contractors who are participating. The system of e-tendering is making the system transparent.
2. Karnataka is the first state to introduce e-payments in a move to check corruption.
3.The Karnataka gaurantee of citizens services act ensures time frame for delivery of services like pension, ration card,arms licence, birth and death certificates failing which the concerned are liable for daily fines
Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and governments have to make efforts to tackle it from all sides. It is a major issue and adversely affects the economy. Corruption in India is a result of the connection between bureaucrats, politicians and criminals. Earlier Bribe was taken to get the wrong things done, but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at the right time.
Most of the largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programs and social spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and National Rural Health Mission. Other daily sources of corruption include India’s trucking industry which is forced to pay billions in bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on its interstate highways. Indian media has widely published allegations of corrupt Indian citizens stashing trillions of dollars in Swiss banks. Swiss authorities, however, assert these allegations to be a complete fabrication and false.
Social corruption like less weighing of products, adulteration in edible items, and bribery of various kind have incessantly prevailed in the society.
Judicial corruption in India is attributable to factors such as “delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws”
The causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations, complicated taxes and licensing systems, numerous government departments each with opaque bureaucracy and discretionary powers, monopoly by government controlled institutions on certain goods and services delivery, and the lack of transparent laws and processes. There are significant variations in level of corruption as well as in state government efforts to reduce corruption across India.
The Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the states, that require government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerization of services and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress grievances
1. Responding to a PIL on the spate of B reports filed, the High court has ordered to set up a Special investigating team to probe such cases involving persons occupying high positions in society.
2. 66% of raids on officials were conducted during 2006-11. An analysis of these cases shows that half of the officials whose premises were raided, whose assets were disproportionate to their incomes were in the Group C category. Strangely only 24 cases relate to the top bureaucracy involving various services of the 3038 cases under investigation.
3.In a number of cases involving the top bureaucracy sanction from Govt is pending for obvious reasons leading to failure in completing investigations.
4.The conviction rate is just .6% of the cases investigated.
The root cause of corruption is the greedy nature of man combined with lack of compassion, the real essence of any Government is to govern its subjects and maintain order and harmony in the society filled with adversaries of human needs and aspirations.
In India, corruption needs to be addressed at different levels.
1. Several deficiencies present in India that is making the fight against corruption even more difficult are Non-abiding of law, Lack of understanding of law. Any law can be effective when it is understandable to both law-enforcer and law-abider, the complexity in Indian law is out of reach to common man. Also the law will be effective when it is enforced, Though in a country like India which has so many voices for every enforcement of law it is highly essential to start enforcing the law even if it may lead to some kind of disorder and imbalance which will be short-lived. This needs to be the immediate action taken towards arresting corruption. Care should be taken that the objective is not control the law-abider by law-enforcer but to make every citizen equal under law including law-enforcers, If the existing law is devoid of this objective, it needs to be amended suitably.
This kind of strictness may lead to oppressive society, but it is appropriate to current situation of Indian society. Simultaneously efforts should be put to create environment where individuals grown will be filled with integrity, honesty and compassion.
2. Every public servant has a acquired a role to be played as a bi-product of the position acquired by him /her. Systems of Governance should be modified to make sure every public servant is carrying out the role with integrity, objectivity and professionalism. While accountability and transparency through technology and public audits can keep a check on the wrong doings and professionalism, it is difficult to measure the actions of the public servant in context with objectivity. Creating an environment in the system where integrity and objectivity becomes the core competence and rewarding factor of the job can be a step to spread the influence of integrity and objectivity among the public servants.
As Mahatma Gandhi had said “No one can hurt me without my permission”, No one can corrupt you without your permission.
Dear Mithun,
Innovative and out of the box solutions given by the bureaucracy at different levels are encouraged and rewarded. There is the Prime Minister’s excellency awards and even in the State Govt. prizes are given for outstanding performance in several fields.All these measures go to make the administration more efficient.
Enough has been studied, said, debated, and documented about corruption. Corruption is not a problem with India or any other State. It is the fundamental nature of mankind. It is embedded in the human blood. As Mithun (above) has rightly put it, it is the absolute greediness of man to acquire materialistic pleasures in the shortest-fastest possible time. With this world having to offer such irresistible pleasures/objects, humans are no angles to reject them. But a sincere, legitimate means have to be followed to achieve the end.
Just as a child cannot be separated from the mother, just as two lovers cannot be separated from each other, such is the power of corruption that cannot be separated from our politicians. Corruption is widespread in our country. From the Cabinet minister to the Gram Sarpanch, everyone is involved. When people in supremacy misuse their power to acquire personal benefits what’s wrong in officials, administrators, local traders acquiring illicit wealth. “Yatha Raja Thatha Praja” (As the ruler so the ruled) seems to be the policy India is following.
Dear Sathvik,
You can be the face of change by saying no to bribes. As a bureaucrat you can do wonders by leaving a mark wherever you are posted by being honest, efficient in your work and sympathetic to the cause of the deserving . Treat each paper/petition that comes to you as a individual with genuine grievance and see that the grievance is redressed in a time frame.
The consultation paper on probity in governance speaks of how discipline is a crucial factor to checking corruption. The Scandinavian economist-sociologist Gunnyar Myrdal describes the Indian society as a “soft society”. While it is indeed true that we are a soft society and show no discipline, I feel we have missed a point here. Indiscipline is inevitable, given our large population, the wide spectrum of inequality and discrimination in every level and every sphere of life, and not to forget the democracy setup of the country.
Right from the macro level of religion/community/caste, down to the sex of an individual, we are a discriminating population, and hence discriminated. That makes an entire nation of disgruntled people. A population that aspires to hold that power, in economic as well as social terms, under which it has been deprived of its natural rights for centuries. So, the resultant chaos is only a natural outcome of the inequalities we have so proudly propagated for thousands of years.
It would be highly wishful thinking to hope for individuals with integrity to change things for the better. But how much can individuals do in a system that is flawed? For example, the lack of a given terms of service in a post for a bureacrat makes it easy for the ministers to order their transfers if she/he doesn’t join the party of corruption. Or the difficulty in passing a bill when the parties in a coalition are opposed to it citing vested interests.
So, tackling corruption can not be entrusted with individuals in this atmosphere. Technology perhaps has the answer – with its ability to reach out to the masses and enforce transparency. But if the implementation of these ideas is also as half hearted as the DCT, we would probably never see the light of dawn.
“Probity in Corruption” in Administration has become one of the fundamental characteristics of bureaucracy for its governance in contemporary scenarios.
Corruption in India is indeed a major issue which does affects India’s economy. It is dragging the whole country down. The more the corruption, the slower the economic growth. India has been ranked 94th out of 176 countries in corruption in 2012.
During 1954-55, The poverty level of Independent India was around 64 percent. For a person who badly needs to support his large family often inclines towards corruption for the source of income.
We cannot ignore the poverty factor at present as well. Planning Commission reported the poverty line to Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas, which constitutes India’s poverty to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10 and poverty level during 2011-12 is 26 percent.
So, Corruption earlier had fostered to address the socio economic needs of his family. But now it has become the basic necessity of an administrator to fulfill the needs of Elites, higher authorities and his own greed. Today, any sort of work in the public sector will not see the progress unless there is “under table money” involved in it.
Also, 1990’s liberal measures of our economy which had made poor poorer and rich richer has enhanced the life styles of the rich class and the tendancy of poor class to copy rich would end up in aggravating corruption as one of the short cut to make quick money is corruption.
Political class is no exemption in attempting to copy the rich class life styles. Also, because of their personal greed it has yeilded some of the best scandals like bofors, Choppers deal, 2G case, Coal gate etc. Still worse is the case where all the money being deposited in foreign banks causing the slack to economic growth.
Our Indian Constitution provides enough ethical and legal framework in the form of Directive principles and Fundamental rights for avoiding the many of the social evils of which corruption is one of them. There is “Prevention of corruption act, 1988” being amended in the parliament in order to avoid the corruption in all levels of an administrative organization.
But the implementation of anticorruption laws raises a serious concern due to many of the reasons like negligent code of conducts by administrators, infringement of political powers, absense of public morality, no conviction for offenders, non working of media to identify corruption, non usage of the technology to have transparency in bureaucracy ,negligence among citizens, socio economic factors etc.
Today corruption has taken such a cruel form, it has been deep rooted in every minds of political class, citizens and administrators. Much of the policies introduced by the government are failing due to corruption. Most of the largest sources of corruption in India are social welfare and entitlement programs enacted by the Indian government like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, National Rural Health Mission etc. hampering the growth of the nation.
Looking at the way corruption has transgressed into every corner of the nation reminds me of the statement:
“Probity in Corruption” in Administration has become one of the fundamental characteristics of bureaucracy for its governance in contemporary scenarios.
I agree to my friends who proclaim that the root cause for corruption is the greedy nature of mankind. Man is never satisfied with what he has.
To add up to it we live in a society where people are respected based on his economic status or political power.I dont mean to say everybody is the same but, its always the majority that has a better say!
Another problem is with the attitude of the present generation.Every body is selfish.As long as they are happy it satisfies them.People think of “their” family “their” children, “their” job but in the process have forgotten that “their” country is at stake! The national pledge says all Indians are our brothers and sisters,but we mostly accept only our bloodline to be family!
Man also has a tendency to forget easily.I still remember how rebellious the crowds got during the Anna Hazare .But now its all history!
Corruption has rooted itself deep and strong in the country.Unless the roots are shaken we cannot pull the tree down to ruins.
Once the attitude of man changes ,corruption will slowly diminish.
There seems to be hope as youth are reacting positive to the situation!
As long as there are people willing to give bribe, people who take will keep multiplying!
All the core values like transparency, accountability, professionalism, reliability, courtesy are top driven values. All these has to be demonstrated by the leaders such that it percolates down. In this way the corruption can head towards its end.
I don’t quite agree with Anil that poverty is a cause for corruption. How many people from the poor sections are in government jobs in the first place to be corrupt? Or have any awareness about all their rights and benefits to encourage corruption? If you are a frequent traveller by auto in Bangalore, you would have observed that muslim auto drivers never charge above the meter rate and always make it a point to return exact change. This, despite their backwardness, poverty and the large families they have. Like Mithun and Sathvik pointed out, greed is the fundamental driving force of corruption.
However, the role of the system under which we function can not be ruled out. If the government was efficient in controlling price rise, gave quality and uniform education to students in government schools and paid attention to its hospital services, why would the middle class or even the upper class people working in government services want to send their children to private schools for good education? Or prefer to go to a private hospital for treatment? Because such services are better provided in the private sector, he is forced to make the kind of money he can splurge in these places – thus making the basics of life a luxury and essentially elitist. If the government focussed on social development just as it does on economic development, where would the question of corruption and poverty arise?
Dear Bhairavi,
The private sector may no doubt be efficient but it is not responsible nor committed to the welfare of the community. On the contrary it is the Govt. with the huge army of bureaucracy that can deliver goods. Service is the motto of Govt. There may be pitfalls in the delivery of services but for this the whole system cannot be faulted. The Citizen’s charter is a fine example for time-bound delivery of services. The RTI is an example in transparency. These institutional mechanisms are absent in the private sector whose functioning is far from transparent.
Dear sir
I agree that any day the government is the last resort for people. But I am not faulting the whole system here. When everyone speaks of only lack of individual integrity and greed as the cause of corruption, I just wanted to add that maybe there is another dimension to it – maybe the employees who accept bribe would not choose to do so, if they could have access to the same quality of services, as in a private sector, from a govt hospital or school, for example. RTI is indeed a boon. But if it is coupled with reforms in education, police, health services, etc. we could go some distance in tackling corruption.
Dear Bhairavi,
Reforms in the health sector have been introduced to improve service delivery. Thus it is mandatory in Karnataka for the Chief administrative officer working in a medical establishment to have a PG in Hospital management. He can motivate the hospital staff to work better and serve the needy. Outsourcing of specialists belonging to various disciplines in several super-speciality hospitals has led to better care of patients.
Most of the people in lower level of pyramid in bureaucracy are from poor and middle class section of the society.
Example about the duty of auto rickshaw men do not come under the direct administration of bureaucracy. Example i would quote would be: night patrol police constables collecting as low as 5 or 10 Rs from street vendors, clerks or office boys in Development Boards, Government Hospitals, Insurance department, Water supply boards, Line men in Electricity boards, men in municipal corporation etc.
Even now any person who joins the BMTC or KSRTC as conductor or driver, during their initial temporary phase of the job they get as low as Rs 3000 odd per month which around Rs 100 per day.
Also, one of the important point behind the revision of 6th Central pay commission by finance ministry in 2008, to increase the salary of workers is to avoid corruption due to low wages. I agree that “greed” is also a major factor in the role of corruption but not the only factor!.
“Greed” addresses only the top level but not the wide lower level of bureaucracy.
Regarding the efficiency, private sectors are efficient because they are managing only small percentage of the educated people when compared to the gigantic population of the country with complex diversity. Also, they establish the companies where they see the profit. That is why in Karnataka, only in Bangalore we see a lot of companies and opportunities but not in Bidar or Gulbarga.I still remember one of the manager of private company quoting that “We are here, not for charity but for business”
Also, GoI has passed “Rights of the Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances” Bill, 2011, which has lots of potential to have Time bound, Transparency and Non corruption services from bureaucracy. Some of them even call it as RTI-Two.
Hypothetically: I’m pretty sure that if the Govt schools performs much better than private schools by utilizing all the facilities introduced by govt, then even Elite people would jump on Govt schools for admission of their children .
Dear Anil kumar,
The RTI act and the time bound delivery of services will usher transparency and ensure accountability . The Centralised Programme for redressal of public grievances and monitoring system-CPGRAMS- is an online monitoring mechanism relating to various departments, wherein the public can monitor the state of their applications.
1. The level of corruption may not be high in India. However, the effect of corruption is very high on common man life. Few reasons for high level of corruption could be:
– Lack of values in our Education System
– The way we brought-up in our life
– Lack of more number of leaders/role models to show us the path
– We are bounded to “objects”
2. “Money is one of the living devils”. It would be good for the society/country and for ourselves if we can follow integrity, uprightness and honesty. In addition to these, we need to keep our “self-interests” aside and keep all the government deals transparent to the people in “detail” (Why we need that deal? How much we are spending? On what basis we are giving those deals to different companies? etc.). Awareness among people is essential and should be done by us. Certainly, we need to keep secrecy before/after some deals which are important due to Country’s security (or other) concerns.
3. “Values look good on paper. However, suffers from lack of implementation”. We better stop forming committee-on-committee for suggestions. Look at all suggested values; Taking-up those values and start following them would be the best.
4. Corruption is not a single block, it is a totality. Certainly, our political system like coalition compulsions (Example: political instability during 1996-1998), adversarial attitudes of political parties with the Vote Bank Politics in mind (Example: Reservation in Promotion, MGNREGA, … till recent Cash Transfer Scheme), the judicial processes like undue delay in cases (Average judicial delay is around 15 years in India…), absence of independent investigation agencies (Example: CBI became ‘Congress’ Bureau of Investigation…), sporadic functioning of civil society and an apathetic citizenry (kitna adjust hote hain hum!) aggravates corruption.
“Until there is a change in people, there is no change in the system”. After all any politician/judge/public servant is one among us. So, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.
Everything which has been discussed so far; I believe is the effect.
To contain corruption; or even to reduce it; we need to get to the root; the cause.
Why do people take bribes? Greed is a good answer; but what about ethics? Human psychology is such that; we tend to sway towards things which make our life easier;
like a sapling tends to grow towards sunlight. Human mind is bound to tilt towards doing things which will give him comforts or fulfill his needs in a quicker way
than toiling for it.
So what about the pious and the righteous? Do they have a different psyche? The answer is no.
What they have is a strong code of ethics; a strong set of values which stop them from doing wrong and push them to do the right thing.
Our system runs on the idea; “Monkey see; monkey do”. Government employees do not join the service with the idea of taking bribes.
They learn; they learn from the environment they work in. If my colleague is doing it; then why shouldn’t I. And if a majority of my colleagues are doing it; phir toh chalta hai.
The kind of environment you are exposed to plays a big picture in how you turn out to be. If the environment is that of corruption; then the only thing which can stop
a person from being corrupt; is his sense of integrity and the values which he has.
We cannot get rid of corruption overnight; and law enforcement is not going to help much. What will help; is training young minds to differenciate right from wrong; to have a sense of integrity; to grow a conscience in them which encourages them to the right thing. We need to train them to stand up against what is wrong and stand up for
what is right. Once we are able to achieve this; we will have a fresh set of minds coming into the system; who have the courage to say no to corruption and do what is right.
We cannot teach an old dog new tricks; similarly we cannot change the mindset of the existing government workforce. What we can do; is make sure that the workforce which is going
to replace the existing one; has a sense of integrity and a strong set of ideals. And slowly; over a period of time; we will have a group of people who are righteous and who will
do the right thing.
It is going to be a continuous process; it is going to be slow; really slow; but it has to be steady. And this is how we will get rid of not just corruption but every form of social
evil.
To bring probity in governance and curb corruption we should follow multi pronged approach
• The Governments decision of accountability through RTI and transparency through digitization process will curb corruption to certain extent.
• The bill for timely delivery of goods and service is another one in pipe line if implemented will increase credibility in government service.
• Strengthening PRI institutions as platform for citizen participation in governance as well as awareness of their rights and duties through various programs
• Strengthening administrative tribunals.
• More teeth to grievance redressal systems.
• Bringing public participation in service delivery through PPP based system.
• Privatizing certain segment which are better done through private firms reducing cost and faster delivery of service.
• Education of Government servents about administrative ethics on the lines of changing world scenarios.
• Reforms in Education system with more emphasis on the equality and morality.
• Electoral reforms and stricter abidance to the guidelines, coalition defiance laws etc.
• Ombudsman system for bringing to justice abusive officers.
• Relaxing certain laws like prohibition of vending on foot path where there are more chances of exploiting poor people by police.
1. What is the cause of high level of corruption in India?
Corruption is not a new phenomenon. It has been in the world since the dawn of civilizations in different forms like slavery, despotic monarchies, autocracies, discrimination in terms of race, caste, nobility etc. With the advent of capitalism the corruption took new face like control of land, capital and natural resources. It is not a phenomenon peculiar to only India, it exists in developed societies as well in the form of neo-liberalism, neo-colonialism policies of US led block countries. In US corruption is institutionalized as corporations, lobbies for arms, drugs etc (Occupy wall street movement shows that.). But in India corruption has pervaded every aspect of life, all kind of services and directly exploits the people. There are various reasons attributed to it –
1. Historical baggage of corruption due to left over implications of long colonial time: Britishers used corrupt means to prolong their rule in India which was continued after Independence. Because of that we still do not have effective mechanisms to check corruption; it is considered legitimate right of powerful class – those who rule, those who control money, and those who administer – as a mean to show their superiority. (Often we can encounter villagers saying that “Pradhan sahib” supposed to buy a new SUV within a year with proud!)
2. Low level of education, social development and human development: As people are not educated they are not aware of their rights. As they are socially weak, economically poor and devoid of nutrition and health services, they do not have physical and mental strength to fight for their right and hence promotes corruption. This makes them vulnerable to vote bank politics, caste politics etc and easily attracted to small pecuniary benefits like – alcohol, cash and lollypop of insufficient so called social benefits. Society is still divided in terms of religion, castes, classes, sub-castes etc and people are not able to see larger developmental benefits from good governance – like better roads, infrastructure, right to food, livelihood and better health.
3. Impunity due to lack of institutional mechanisms to check corruption: We lack effective mechanisms to check corruption at all levels and specially at higher levels. Ministers, high commands and high level bureaucrats remain unpunished inspite clear involvement in corrupt practices, crimes and collusion while honest persons get death gift like Sateyndra Dube and many RTI activists. This discourages even good people within the system. Black market economy is booming due to lack of reforms in electoral system, realty sector. We are not able to make CBI autonomous, CAG with some teeth, establish lokpal and enact right to service and grievance redressal even after more than 60 years of independence. The Police force is still governed by archaic british era police act under the dubious control of political class misusing it. Judiciary is helpless and insufficient.
With all this with changing time and due to some critical changes in recent time – 1) changing demographic structure of nation – more educated and young people, 2) advent of IT and communication technologies and revolution due to these, 3) increasing scope and effect of media due to social media, internet, 24X7 news channel; we have seen few changes like RTI act 2005, SAKALA type acts in various states and similar act is proposed at central level, increasing civil society pressure resulting in discussion in Lokpal bill, judicial accountability bill etc we will see things changing in future.
Dear Gaurav,
An important institutional mechanism introduced to instil responsibility among the bureaucracy is the CPGRAMS which is a set up to monitor the implimentation of public grievances across several Govt. dept.
Yes sir, that’s a good move but it is not being widely advertised and moreover no time bound action is mandated and no clear provisions for taking action against corruption, omissions and commissions.
After going through all the responses my comment is: Satan can never enter till he finds a flaw…A great ocean separates us educated few from the millions of our country.
Corruption arises from very natural instinct, desire. Desire in absence of a defined and monitored vigilance makes space to Greed. By saying very natural, it implies to be all-pervading and omnipresent develops into multi-potent and exploitative.
Corruption exists in all forms of governance, be it Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship or Communism. ( We are seeing Chinese leaders vowing to root out corruption). But Democracy, above all, has an exemplary advantage that advancement in Democracy or extension of democracy can become an powerful instrument towards eradicating Corruption, while the other forms of governance require complete overhaul of administration.
While the causes for corruption are discussed very well above, I would mention the consequences.:
1. Increases the transaction cost.
2. Diverts the potential capital for investment towards becoming black money, whose accumulation is a wastage for economic growth, while its circulation is detrimental for the health of the economy.
3. Corruption obstructs the social equity. Rich can afford the services at the cost of bribe, while others fail to afford the cost. Legitimizing or institutionalisation of corruption has these serious flaw which U.S is facing today.
4. Of course, corruption has moral implication on the society also, because it transforms the very social norms and values observed over the generation. The remark made by Sociologist Ashish Nandy recently has to be considered in this light. When he related “Dalits or BCs” to corruption (He meant lower classes not the particular communities, I suppose) he assumed that as younger generations of these hitherto lower classes taking into higher echelons, they are increasingly exposed to “Corruptionalisation”, which is slowly becoming a norm.
5.. There is another reason for he pointing out towards lower classes. The lower classes or for that matter the exploited, had an opportunity to form countervailing groups or institutions to put up a fight against the exploiters. Unfortunately, they took the wrong line. They became complacent with the crime !
Measures :
1. Expansion and devolution of democracy.
2. Raising countervailing institutions
3. Economic empowerment
4. Education
5. Public vigilance, etc
Corruption in India is a major issue and adversely affects its economy. In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index . Most of the largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programs and social spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and National Rural Health Mission. Other daily sources of corruption include India’s trucking industry which is forced to pay billions in bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on its interstate highways.
“Corruption is an abuse for public resources or position in public life for private gain”
SIR,
INDIA having population of around 1002.1 MILLIONS which is the 2nd highest population in the world,and i do agree that level of corruption is very high in INDIA ,and i also do agree that government sector are mainly involved in this.
Here in INDIA many public resources are handled by our Government, comparing to other countries were much of the public resources are handled by the private sectors with negligible corruption .
In INDIA the economy ratio is imbalanced ,people are either very rich or very poor. Poor people have no concern whatever is going in there country and rich people are busy in building there own capital.
Now here comes the middle class people were a part of this community which is unsatisfied with there fair earning and are busy maKing blacK money becoming a corrupt person may be whatever field they have opted may be government service ,politics,business etc. and a part of it who is fighting against corruption,wanting the society to be clean and corruption free State .
NOW, the turning point comes here that we all were thinKing that the corrupted BlacK money is somewhere in so called SWISS BANK ,But the twist is that almost blacK money is here only in India,claimed.It has been polished by the banKers of our country who by every means are violating many laws of our constitution. and maKing the corrupt persons to invest in there different programs and maKing the money into white,this is true fact…
The Level of Corruption is definitely high in India mainly because of the time constraints where people do not have the patience of waiting to get their job done. Everybody wants to get their work done easily by paying bribes or through influence. Even the common man today feels paying bribes is much easier and less time-consuming than having to do continuous visits to government offices.
It is also the responsibility of the common man to stop encouraging corruption and the responsibility of government officials to stop accepting bribes and to work for the development of the nation as a whole.
The recent Lokayukta raids which have been taking place in our state sets a clear example of the level of corruption our country has been going through. Corruption has almost occupied every sector of human life including basic amenities like food, healthcare etc.
It is the need of the hour to curb corruption to ensure a better economic development of our country.
Corruption, like everything has evolved.Earlier, bribe was paid to get wrong things done at the right time.Nowadays, it is being paid to get right things done at the right time.This institutionalization of legitimate bribery to get faster services ensured that a parallel economy greased and siphoned off from the legitimate economy.
The ability of the elites to do as they like and staying above the so called common institutions leads to demoralising of the integrity crowd while on the other hand the legitimacy of institutions are eroded.The very formation of special investigative teams ensure that corruption requires elitist response and not a subaltern response. The idea of grassroots corruption and response to it are lacking in this top down approach.The need of the hour is decentralized corruption response.Institutions have to be strengthened and not belittled by formation of extra institutions which effectively prove that common institutions are not upto the task.
Corruption cannot go hand in hand with transparency. E governance subject to robust cyber security architecture is one such way.
Popular representation of corruption as social evil is lacking, as it has an ostrich in the sand mentality. This ensures that masses do not look at corruption with the urgency and disgust it should command.
Corruption in India is not a new thing. In olden days people used to provide food grains / coconuts etc to please government officals in order to get their jobs done. The purpose was to get the wrong job done fast. Apart from this, the giver is equally responsible. We all agree that the corruption in India is at large, and we keep on saying this. But we do not own. Corruption starts from our own houses. For Eg : 1) Train tickets are not available, but we don’t mind in getting them in black. 2) Seats are not available in colleges and we don’t mind paying donations. 3) We try to play tricks for evading taxes. 4) We get various certificates like caste / birth-death certificate by paying bribe. when we ourselves do not follow any ethics then who has to be blamed. Simple question – show me one person who has not bribed to anybody in any form.
Corruption has spread its tentacles everywhere. No one is spared.
To root out corruption we need to follow :
1) Let us take oath that we shall not bribe anyone in any form. Let’s follow the ethics in our life.
2) To educate our children about its ill effect and by telling moral stories. ( i belive there is no moral study subject in school now a days )
3) Strict enforcemnet of Lokayukta and it should be indenpendent body. No one should be theie boss.
4) Right to recall
5) There should be minimum qualification prescribed for MP’s / M:A’s / President etc. ( Political boses )
6) Quick disposal of all the cases from the judiciary
7) Spot dismissal of the government employees who demands bribe and equal punishment for the person who offers
8) Reward / recognition of a person who is honest / and follows ethics
Firstly, let us agree that the Corruption is everybody’s problem, as this is effecting everyone some way or the other. If this has to be eradicated, then, we all have to join hands and fight against the corrpupt people. And for this it should start from ME. ( from the individual )
1) Let us ignore those politician who visits us once in 5 years begging for votes and also corrupting by distributing liquor / money etc. Let us boycot these politicians
2) Let us sincerely vote ( most of the us think that what difference it makes if i do not vote and that nothing is going to change )
3) Minimum qualification for politicians and encourage youngsters ( let old politicians become a part of advisory committee )
4) A time frame has to be fixed for all the jobs to be carried out by a government employee ( like issuance of driving licence – passport – etc )
5) Regional parties should not be encouraged in national politics ( as they demand for their pound of flesh – which is being witnessed today )
6) To ensure that every child gets education
7) Judiciary to dispose the cases in no time. This is a important paramater as this gives immediate and strong message to the corrupt persons. ( presently the cases go on for years together )
8) Bring up your child in a clean & healthy atmosphere.
9) To ammend the laws which were made in those days ( anda kala thil ) to suit the present conditions
10) Govt to Keep check on banks / account holders and their transactions to symphon out the money to swiss.
The above can be achieved only when we are honest and the law makers fully enforce and are not corrupt. what happens when the law maker himself break the law ( we only can discuss – deabte on this issues and nothing else )
Corruption in India is seen from time immemorial.It started of from time gone by. It started of by people giving something in return for their work to be done.in India people are impatient they want their work to be done as early as possible. No one wants to wait in those long queues to get their wok done.corruption has evolved over time n still growing.
One of the reasons for this our administration system where everything happens on a tomorrow basis. The government employees just postpone things which can be sought of when and there. Yes there is a lot of work that goes through n formalities that have to be covered but we can’t keep people waiting the whole day n ask them to keep visiting again and again.it effects people’s lives as in case of he poor n the middle class people need to earn to carry on their daily lives.
Hence they are ready to pay some money and get their work done. Nowadays the rate of corruption has increased so much that people ask money before carrying out any work.
Isn’t there any way out.why doesn’t the government recruite more people to get the work done faster. There is so much unemployment why can’t they utilize it.
Corruption in India is so much present in politics as well that sometimes it’s as if people really believed it’s a natural or inborn feature of the Indian democracy.
Taking bribes have become inevitable at every level. If a bribe hasn’t been taken, the work hasn’t been done.
In cities and villages throughout India, “mafia raj” consisting of municipal and other government officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers and law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways. Many state-funded construction activities in India, such as road building, are dominated by construction mafia, which are groupings of corrupt public works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors.
The land scams today amount to crores of rupees. Which could have been utilized in much smarter way to curb poverty and corruption.
Due to the socio-ethnic diversity of the country , India has a lot of national and local political parties. It not only has 7 national parties, but also over 50 State political parties and hundreds and hundreds of local ones that all compete to represent as many ethnic groups as possible. So in theory that sounds like a good thing no?
This has just worsened the situation of corruption in the country, countless number of bribes, cheating the innocent only for personal greed.
The private sector use bribes to influence public policy, laws and regulations.
All government departments are corrupt but the worst of the worst were those of customs (of course), revenue collection, public works (technically there’s money to develop the slums, obviously it’s disappeared), and agencies in charge of licenses and permits.
These are just few of the many areas of corruption.
How can we curb corruption?
1.) Having a widely trained public workforce in the country would help increase oversight and scrutiny from within the administration as well as instill a greater understanding and respect of administrative procedures, thereby reducing corruption in India.
2.) Having a more simple and straightforward bureaucracy – which is incredibly easier today with digital technology – is one of the most effective ways to fight corruption in India.
Hi Sir,
You are doing a tremendous job..hats off