Corruption in India
-------------------------
I am sure this topic is beaten to death and billions of words have been written about it. However, I need to add my two cents.
As we all know, India probably is near the top when it comes to corruption. One might say that corruption is a menace that dogs every third world country. Be it Pakistan, Bangladesh or any sub-Saharan country. I am sure there is some corruption in developed world as well but common man never ever comes across it. A vast majority of people living in developed countries can go thru their lives without ever paying a bribe to any government servant.
In my opinion, if India ever wants to get out of this overwhelming chaos, filth and poverty, we need to put a lid on this corruption.
Several opinions exist why the corruption exist in India and the most prominent among them is that 'govt officers aren't paid well'. I disagree with it totally. Government officers have always been better paid than comparable jobs in private sector. We are not talking about CEOs and CFOs and directors of private companies but regular Joe in Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai/Kolkata who gets up at 6:00 AM and returns home at 8:00 PM by local train.
My heart bleeds when I see a poor guy earning Rs 10,000 per month being told to pay Rs 200 by a traffic cop..who probably makes upwards of Rs 30,000 per month. Now, all these traffic rules are useless and would work very well even if cops aren't present...provided we have good signal lights and good quality roads. Yes, there are crazies who take every opportunity to break a traffic signal and want to drive thru the red signal but such idiots are getting rarer by day. India is changing. I see that a vast majority of people obeying traffic signals even when there are no cops around.
Speaking of traffic cops, I have a huge grudge against them. First bribe that almost every Indian pays is to a traffic cop. Once traffic cops stops you, you end up paying unless you have an ability to pull strings. There are millions of reasons and documents they keep asking you and wasting your time even if you have all of them. Additionally, govt keeps coming up with rules to ensure steady flow of bribes.
There is a reason why in every Indian state departments like Revenue, home ministry or Surface transport are considered important when ministers' portfolios are allocated. There is a huge money involved in these departments.
There are variety of opinion about how to control this rot. Trouble is you and me might consider it as a rot but a traffic cop or a revenue department clerk considers it as his birth right to make some extra money.
IMO, we should start filming and catching some culprits who ask for bribes and file cases. Anti-corruption department is useless. An 18 year old Indian can tell you the rates of traffic cops but a senior officer at anti-corruption-bureau will not be able to throw any light on sad state of affairs in this country.
People need to forget govt and start their own mission to catch the corrupt people.
I am sure some people will be courageous enough to do that. Rest can wait for Bhagat Singh's reincarnation.
-------------------------
I am sure this topic is beaten to death and billions of words have been written about it. However, I need to add my two cents.
As we all know, India probably is near the top when it comes to corruption. One might say that corruption is a menace that dogs every third world country. Be it Pakistan, Bangladesh or any sub-Saharan country. I am sure there is some corruption in developed world as well but common man never ever comes across it. A vast majority of people living in developed countries can go thru their lives without ever paying a bribe to any government servant.
In my opinion, if India ever wants to get out of this overwhelming chaos, filth and poverty, we need to put a lid on this corruption.
Several opinions exist why the corruption exist in India and the most prominent among them is that 'govt officers aren't paid well'. I disagree with it totally. Government officers have always been better paid than comparable jobs in private sector. We are not talking about CEOs and CFOs and directors of private companies but regular Joe in Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai/Kolkata who gets up at 6:00 AM and returns home at 8:00 PM by local train.
My heart bleeds when I see a poor guy earning Rs 10,000 per month being told to pay Rs 200 by a traffic cop..who probably makes upwards of Rs 30,000 per month. Now, all these traffic rules are useless and would work very well even if cops aren't present...provided we have good signal lights and good quality roads. Yes, there are crazies who take every opportunity to break a traffic signal and want to drive thru the red signal but such idiots are getting rarer by day. India is changing. I see that a vast majority of people obeying traffic signals even when there are no cops around.
Speaking of traffic cops, I have a huge grudge against them. First bribe that almost every Indian pays is to a traffic cop. Once traffic cops stops you, you end up paying unless you have an ability to pull strings. There are millions of reasons and documents they keep asking you and wasting your time even if you have all of them. Additionally, govt keeps coming up with rules to ensure steady flow of bribes.
There is a reason why in every Indian state departments like Revenue, home ministry or Surface transport are considered important when ministers' portfolios are allocated. There is a huge money involved in these departments.
There are variety of opinion about how to control this rot. Trouble is you and me might consider it as a rot but a traffic cop or a revenue department clerk considers it as his birth right to make some extra money.
IMO, we should start filming and catching some culprits who ask for bribes and file cases. Anti-corruption department is useless. An 18 year old Indian can tell you the rates of traffic cops but a senior officer at anti-corruption-bureau will not be able to throw any light on sad state of affairs in this country.
People need to forget govt and start their own mission to catch the corrupt people.
I am sure some people will be courageous enough to do that. Rest can wait for Bhagat Singh's reincarnation.
No comments:
Post a Comment