Thursday, 8 September 2011

Re: [www.keralites.net] ARRESTING THE PANDEMIC OF CORRUPTION

 

 
Hazare cannot step in and stop all that you want him to do.
He can ONLY make you aware of what is happening around you and you start complaining to the concerned authorities about it from happening repeatedly.
 
When an individual complain about the facilities about the hospital when he visits one, you cannot ask to finish MBBS and become a doctor to find a solution. He can only complain. The authorities who run the hospital are responsible for remedial measures.
 
When a common person complains about the bridge, you can ask him to complete engineering degree and build a better bridge. He is expected to raise the complaint to the authorities who are paid to rectify and who should step in correct the situation.
 
When Hazare complain about the politician, you cannot expect to stand for MP and raise the topic in Parliament or become a minister to for a solution. He is expected raise the topic in any forum and the fellow Indian is expected to support the noble cause instead of criticizing him just for criticisms.
 
 
regards
 
 
N. Ramachandran  
 
Our PM can not rectify the situation, because he controlled by some people who are more powerful. PM knows his limits when he crosses the"lakshman rekha" he will not remain as PM

From: Narayanan Ramachandran <nnr_rama@yahoo.com>
To: "Keralites@yahoogroups.com" <Keralites@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, 8 September 2011 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: [www.keralites.net] ARRESTING THE PANDEMIC OF CORRUPTION
 
Can Hazare & Co do something to reduce the Population which is the causse of all evils.  Can they do
something to maintain supply of pure drinking water, availability of two square meals
a day and provision of roof over the head of poor. Also can they assist in providing
quality education to all.  Stop the abuse of children under the age of 14 in the name
of providing jobs. Can they help stop the rising prices.

Do you know ordinary people cannot own a house now in Mumbai with the cost
sky-rocketing.   It is the case everywhere. I shudder to think what will happen five years from now.  Builders
take 30% cost in black. Can Hazare & Co. stop it.  

Can they stop Police,Municipal,Rationing,Railway  employees and others demanding bribes.

I do not know why Hazare & Co. fight shy of contesting for polls and then going about
solving our problems.  It is easy to blame others and difficult to practice what you preach.

Can Hazare and Team solve the Kashmir issue and the Border dispute with China and
thus help us save crores of money spent on Defence which could  be put to better use.

We are so steeped in corruption that even the Gods if they take birth in our
country cannot eradicate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rgds RAMA  
.     






bv: Gangadharan Nair N <ng.puthoor@gmail.com>
To: Keralites <Keralites@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:53 AM
Subject: [www.keralites.net] ARRESTING THE PANDEMIC OF CORRUPTION
 
ARRESTING THE PANDEMIC OF CORRUPTION
Anti-corruption set-ups at the state and district levels will strengthen the Centre's efforts for an effective Lokpal

In the epic Mahabharata, when Draupadi (the Mother land - India) was being disrobed, the blind king Dhritarashtra (the Prime Minister - Dr. Manmohan Singh) 'watched' it silently and unashamedly. He did not stop Dushashan (the Council of Ministers - Pranab Kumar Mukerji, Kapil Sibal, Chithambaram, Salman Khurshid etc.) from this dastardly act, as the crown prince Duryodhan (Rahul Gandhi) was egging him on. Bhishma Pitamah (the President - Srimathy Pratibha Patil) sat still with deafening silence, and the wise minister Vidur (the Opposition Leaders, Sushama Swaraj & Arun Jetley) protested when Draupadi shouted in anger.

We see a similar drama unfolding, when the head of government claims total honesty but does not respond to the charge that all this was happening right under his nose. Whether it was the 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games or the cash-for-votes, can the perception of people change that it did not involve the highest authority in the country?

This is why the support for the Anna Hazare movement was spontaneous. People are hoping that the movement will bring about better governance in the country. If the change has to happen at the highest level through a constitutionally-empowered Lokpal, surely it will have a trickle-down effect on the morass that we see prevailing in our administrative system. Corruption has now become a part of our DNA and is now a pandemic.

Changing that will take a few generations, but we have to begin now. The issues are not just about getting a ration card or whatever without greasing palms, but also addressing the distortions that exist in the system that have spillover impacts on the society and the economy. Today, nearly all the kamdhenu posts in the country are auctioned: be it a policeman's or an engineer's or a regional transport officer's position, or a district food supply officer's post. To amplify the systemic issues, the public distribution system is one such glaring example. Research shows that only 10% of the benefits accrue to the poor, while leakages are about 43%, and the rest goes to the inefficient government system. Because the system feeds on political patronage and, hence, all parties are together in supporting it like the caste reservation system. Therefore, the incentive to politicians to support such reforms is poor. "Central government is proposing to introduce National Food Security law that would provide statutory framework to ensure food security for all… But the law will be rendered futile like PDS if it does not come up with an appropriate mechanism for its implementation.

"PDS is synonymous with corruption," says Justice D P Wadhwa in the overview chapter of the report of the Central Vigilance Committee on PDS that submitted its report to the Supreme Court in September 2009. "…there is a web of corruption woven around the PDS by politicians, bureaucrats, transporters and officials of the Food Supplies Department and Civil Supplies Corporation. They are shameless people having no inhibition depriving the poor of their food."

Another issue that has been raised in the current debate is whether the Lokpal institution itself cannot be corrupted. There is a distinct possibility of this. One instance in my own knowledge some time in early 1980s can amplify this issue. In a divisional engineer's office, a peon asked for leave. The divisional accounts officer asked for a bribe of Rs. 150 to approve it. The peon complained to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, who laid a trap and caught the accounts officer red-handed. Was he prosecuted? No, but his punishment came through a haranguing investigation leading to a settlement of Rs. 60,000 he paid as a bribe to the bureau officials to get the case squashed. In a perverse sense, this was democratization of corruption. What did the peon do? Otherwise a simple and honest man, he started demanding bribes from anyone wanting access in the engineer's office.

Today, the rates of bribe have gone up hugely as a sort of democratic right. In one instance, a patwari shocked an entrepreneur by demanding Rs.50,000, instead of the usual Rs. 5,000, for issuing a patta for an authorised conversion of land from farm to commercial use where he was going to build a hotel. All possible directions from seniors did not move the patwari to settle for less and do his job, and the entrepreneur ended up paying it. The delay would have meant other problems.

These two instances point to lack of transparency and accountability in the system and its monitoring. In both the cases, there was no system to check the progress of matters by superiors, and this is systemic. This is aided by Article 311 of the Constitution, which provides a life-long insurance to civil servants from being sacked. If one looks around, we find that very few civil servants have been sacked. The easy way out was to send them back to their home cadre as punishment. In one case this author knows of, the person was asked to resign. No effort was made to recover the huge wealth that had been accumulated. As far as politicians go, such as Sukh Ram, Antulay and many others, the track record is worse. Political compulsions do not allow prosecution, and the prosecuting machinery is influenced to go slow or weaken the charges.

This is what the proposed Lokpal will try and do, and by ensuring control over the investigative and prosecutorial machinery. The Lokpal Bills will now be debated before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice. A refreshing and welcome change is that their proceedings will be public. Having appeared before several parliamentary committees, it has not been a pleasant experience because their proceedings are not public and one is also cautioned that evidence submitted before them cannot be made public until the committee has submitted its report to the House. This author has always protested that when the House proceedings are public, how can a subsidiary body be opaque, but to no avail.

With the movement now on the Lokpal Bill that has already had a salutary impact on our economy and the governance system, we need to start a similar movement at the level of the states and our districts. Only then can we hope to arrest the pandemic of corruption.
(The author is secretary general of CUTS International)
" Vande Matharam "
"Jai Hind"

Gangadharan Nair N
ng.puthoor@gmail.com
www.keralites.net

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