My five point agenda to curb corruption practices in India by Vavani Sarmah

 My five point agenda to curb corruption practices in India by Vavani Sarmah

For last decade India’s development and progress is significant. India positioned itself for a prospective developed nation in the world by this century. GDP increases and it has been predicted that GDP will grow up to $17,000 by 2015. Still in case of corruption, India’s existing systems is one of the corrupted in the entire world. Common people are the victims of this corruption. People need to bribe officials for any small thing to work. My five point agenda to curb corruption –

 

1)     Tough government regulation is the key to curb this practices among its officials. We need a law to make sure that if any official found guilty on bribery, action to be taken like

i)         First thing is to confiscate his/her PF or pension fund forever.

ii)       Pay fines upfront then proof not guilty and get the paid fine back

iii)      Temporary or permanent present of CBI/anti-corruption representative in the most vulnerable departments

iv)      Yearly town hall meeting to make awareness among its employeeàhigh lighting departmental mission, product and services.

(By productàmore job creation for those departments, increase of government fund, improve employee morale)

2)     Systems need to be improved in such a way, so that common public interaction becomes very minimal and becomes window base system with most of the government departments where possible. And office environment needs to be improved so that every transaction becomes more transparent. Officers to interact with common public through a counter like in Bank. Officers in the other side of the window. (By productàLess traffic to the department result more productive work for the officers)

3)       Identify most corrupted departments and points and install CCTV or surveillance camera which will be run and operate by third party preferably private sector participation. CCTV/ surveillance camera records will be analysed and monitor by other government departments like Anti-Corruption, CBI etc. (By productàJob creation for private sector, revenue stream for CBI or anti-corruption department etc)

4)     Introduce one mandatory chapter against corruption and its consequence and available law in the country in class 8^th standards social study book sooner than later to make awareness among the prospective citizen of our country.(By productàbooks with more information)

5)     Identify each and every department’s products and services and time takes for each services and mandatory display in public places for whole year and published once in a year in one popular daily newspaper. (By productàrevenue stream for Newspaper industry)

Vavani Sarmah

Seattle, USA

Sat, 20 Jan 2007

“Vavani Sarmah” <vavani@yahoo.com>

Evolve system to tackle corruption: Chief Justice

Evolve system to tackle corruption: Chief Justice
Monday July 17 2006 00:00 ISTUNI

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEU20060716133452&Title=Hyderabad&rLink=0

HYDERABAD: Supreme Court Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal on Sunday said there was a need to evolve a system to tackle corruption spreading in the judicial system in the county.

Speaking at the state-level judicial officers conference organised by the High Court here, Sabharwal said the new system should adopt information technology to deliver Justice without any involvement of corruption in the judiciary.

Referring to the recent media reports that there was 20 per cent corruption in the judiciary, he said the corruption at any per cent should be curbed. Even five percent should not be allowed.

“We should deliver Justice in reasonable time without considering the status of litigant”, he said.

He said laptop computers would be provided to every judicial officer under a central scheme in future and every court would be computerised in near future to dispose the cases which was pending for several years and to maintain transparency.

Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice G S Singhvi and Justice Bilal Nazki were also present on the occasion.

As India celebrates freedom, leaders vow to fight corruption:: Prime minister: Problem is eating India ‘like termites’

As India celebrates freedom, leaders vow to fight corruption

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/15/india.indep./

Prime minister: Problem is eating India ‘like termites’

In this story:

• National anti-corruption campaign urged
• Steps to benefit women announced
• Related stories and sites

August 15, 1997
Web posted at: 12:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT)

NEW DELHI (CNN) — India’s 50th anniversary of independence was celebrated with fireworks, laser beams and parades. But the pageantry was overshadowed Friday as Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral soberly described the nation’s rampant bribery and corruption and called for a crusade to fight it.

India is considered one of the most corrupt countries, and investors say the demand for bribes at every step of the development has held up its free-market program.

India’s last government lost elections after it was buried by scandals involving Cabinet ministers. Among those charged with corruption was the former leader of Gujral’s party.

“We have to build a mass movement in which all can join so that corruption in politics, politicians and public life must end,” Gujral said in a solemn speech to the nation from the Red Fort, a 17th-century monument. “It is eating into the country’s vitals like termites.”

Gujral promised to break the link between politicians and criminals and “make government functioning more transparent.”

Before his speech, fighter jets trailed streams of saffron, white and green — the colors of the Indian flag — across a sky lit by the early morning sun.

Helicopters dropped rose petals on the crowd of 10,000. At the end of the ceremony, 7,000 schoolchildren, waving paper flags, sang the national anthem.

National anti-corruption campaign urged

India’s leaders appealed to citizens to fight corruption by refusing to take bribes.

“A widespread national movement is needed to cleanse the system,” told a special session of parliament that started at the stroke of midnight — exactly 50 years after the dawn of Indian freedom.

The soul-searching reflected India’s mixed feelings on the anniversary of independence from colonial rule.

Leaders pointed proudly to India’s achievements: self-sufficiency in food production, a vibrant democracy and industrial and technological progress.

But the anniversary stirred a bout of self-recrimination as leaders lamented the nation’s ills: illiteracy, poverty, population growth, environmental degradation and, above all, corruption in public life.

Women to benefit from changes

Also in his 90-minute nationally televised address Gujral:

• Promised to give poor families money to care for daughters, who are often denied educational opportunities in a culture where boys are cherished.
• Announced that the government would bar doctors from revealing whether a fetus is a girl or a boy.More boys than girls are born in India, where social workers say women sometimes choose abortion to avoid having a girl who could later be a financial burden, because of the heavy cost of a dowry.
• Declared that primary education would become mandatory for children up to age 14, but offered no details on how the government would pay for the program. Similar programs have failed in the past because of a shortage of funding.
• Vowed to improve relations with Pakistan, the western neighbor also celebrating its 50th anniversary. But Gujral said he would not compromise India’s security. The two nations have fought three wars.
• Repeated India’s opposition to a global treaty banning nuclear tests.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.  

Special Section:

• India and Pakistan – Fifty Years of Independence

Related stories:

• India, Pakistan celebrate 50th anniversaries – August 14, 1997
• Security stepped up over sectarian violence in Pakistan – August 10, 1997
• India, Pakistan break ice at talks – April 9, 1997

Related sites:

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

• Government of India – from the Ministry of External Affairs
• India: The Land Of The Indus – Information about India, its culture and history
• Government of Pakistan
• The Official Pakistan Page – resource for information on Pakistan
• Harappa – multimedia site that features rare pictures, sounds and movies and allow you to take a virtual stroll through the Indus Valley

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

How the Left aids corruption

How the Left aids corruption

R Jagannathan

Saturday, July 01, 2006  23:16 IST

 http://www.dnaindia.com/sunreport.asp?Newsid=1038978

As the tail that wags the UPA dog, the Left has a powerful influence on policy direction. But so far this power has been used more to delay reforms than to achieve its own broader social agenda. Judged by its positions on various issues, there’s little doubt in my mind that the Left has become a reactionary force in Indian politics. Consider a few examples: The Left wants the public sector strengthened, but all it has managed to do is send the most profitable among them hurtling towards bankruptcy (oil companies, for example). The Leftist heart bleeds for the unemployed; but it opposes the one reform that will make manufacturing companies hire big again: flexible labour laws, contract labour and temping. The Left is against the perpetuation of caste, but its equivocal stand in the quota debate has helped entrench caste even further. The Left is exploring the idea of a Third Front but who makes up this Front? The Lalus, Mulayams, DMKs and Gowdas of the world — almost all caste-based forces. Can you abolish caste by joining hands with casteist forces? The Left’s ideological predilections are doing maximum damage in one area that concerns us all — corruption in daily life. Its policies actually help institutionalise corruption everywhere. For example, when the Left opposes rationalisation of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas prices, it is effectively making sure that public sector units will fall sick or walk on crutches. With little resources to invest, these companies are losing marketshare to rivals. When ONGC makes less money because it has to subsidise kerosene and cooking gas prices, it cannot invest much in securing energy assets for India abroad, thus compromising national energy security. On the other hand, by keeping kerosene prices far below economic levels, the government is effectively encouraging adulteration of fuel with cheap kerosene. Enter corruption. The same goes for reservations. Given the huge demand for higher education, it’s obvious that we need an expansion of seats in technical education. This calls for the creation of more for-profit private educational institutions, which will, over time, cater to excess demand from the better off sections of society. But this expansion of capacity will not happen if the government insists on quotas even in private institutions. By backing quotas, the Left is fomenting a shortage psychosis and a fight over spoils, leading to further corruption. More recently, in the wake of the market crash, the Left has been drumming up sentiment against foreign institutional investors (FIIs) on the assumption that they are destabilising the stockmarkets. This is one of the stupidest arguments I have heard. The FIIs may be selling, but does anybody buy shares only to sit on them? On the other hand, the sharp improvement in corporate governance levels can directly be attributed to FII investments in India’s blue-chip companies. Why is no one buying when the FIIs are selling? Because there is no domestic institution big enough to offer a counterweight to the FIIs. Only long-term pension funds can afford to buy when the markets are falling. So who’s holding up pension fund investments in stocks? Surely, it’s the Left? The Leftists have a stock answer to the problem of corruption — better enforcement, policing, etc. That is a perfect recipe for disaster. The story of Indian corruption is closely related to the amount of discretionary power in the hands of inspectors, policemen and bureaucrats. So more policing and regulation cannot be the main answer to the problem. With fairly clean personal records, Left politicians ought to be at the forefront of the fight against corruption. But their achievements are nothing to write home about. Most major policy changes in the post-1980 period have been linked to corruption — delicensing, the opening up of telecoms and aviation, import liberalisation, the special economic zones policy, and the clearance of mill land for property development, to name just a few. Every one of these involved backroom skulduggery of some kind. But, equally, they have consistently reduced the power of babus to exhibit rent-seeking behaviour. When one takes a close look at the history of corruption in India, one counter-intuitive conclusion seems possible: the corrupt have probably done more to reduce corruption than the supposedly incorruptible Left. Email: r_jagannathan@dnaindia.net