Corruption magnet

“Sarkari naukri mein upari kamai bahut hai.”(There’s lot of additional income in
government jobs). Ask any person why he prefers the government job over the private
one and this will be one reason every person will tell, for sure. In fact, the problem is so
grave that people are not as worried about the legal income as they are about their so
called additional income.

Talk to these people about corruption in general and there will be two responses. The first
one being that, with such a high inflation, there’s no option but to resort to taking bribes
for survival. And what’s included in there list of survival is cars, bungalows, jewellery and
servants.

In case of second response, it’s much trickier to gauge their views. They talk about
hanging the corrupt while having the reason of additional income to join public service.

However, in light of these notorious views, it has become a routine exercise to exchange
bribes and it is asked so often and openly, that many even don’t call it a bribe. They
think, it’s their means of earning in exchange for work, forgetting that they are already
paid to do so.

The primary reason for increase in

corruption levels is the people’s
confidence on our government.
Confidence that government will not
take any action against the culprits.
Government employees are assured of
their job security so they do whatever
they want. In fact, this is the biggest
cause for budding corruption. People
know that until proven guilty (which
usually take years) they are not going to
be punished. This makes corruption a great tool of earning due to negligible risk to return
ratio.

In a country, where ‘Dr. Sen’ was given life term for just speaking against the
government, people wander around even after acting against the country. So, should Raja
not be terminated from parliament or his perks and salary be withhold? Or should election
commission not bar him from appearing in next term elections? But the answer is in
negative, and as long as it remains so, there’s no reason why Raja or Kalmadi or any
other person should not commit such a crime.

The only way to prevent corruption from further expanding its wings is transparency. And
to start, government should make it compulsory, for every government employee ranging
from ‘President’ to ’Peon’ to be open to public scrutiny and bringing them under the
purview of RTI.

Also those under trial should be barred from getting any compensation or perks against
their work till proven guilty. If proved, he should be immediately suspended without
giving the arrears and should not be allowed in other government jobs and if proven
innocent all their arrears should be cleared. This will go a long way to reduce corruption
as the punishment will be immediate and eminent.

In addition, government should make it rewarding for people to inform about corrupt
officials by giving them preference for their work and jobs.

All these may be small baby steps but if implemented properly , it will certainly clip the
wings of corrupt.

Priyank Gupta(19)

Skyline Institute of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida