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| Corruption an unending crusade in India | | | Khushwant S Ranial
The nation is presently facing
outnumbered social and political evils and these evils have crippled the fabric of society to the extent that impatience, intolerance, mistrust, misconception, unwanted unionism, fear and fragile bonding between the individuals can be seen writ large on every face of Indian citizens. There are outnumbered causes behind emanation of such ever widening gaps growing and distancing each of us from our fellow citizens day by day. How unfair and apathetic is that situation has worsened to the highest level that barely allows our inner conscience to rarely rely on those upon whom we are asked to trust. Our conscience has been so badly jolted by the prevailing corrupt practices that except expecting darkness at the other end of the tunnel, we think no more. Whom to blame for all such existing mess I.e System, Governance, leadership, incompetent judiciary, Police, Civil administration, illiteracy, lack of awareness, poverty or the Masses who fail to comprehend and easily fall prey to the unholy nexus of the tentacles ever on toe to make us victim by robbing of our due benefits.
It was thought once that after gaining independence, our state actors will liberate us from the shackles of slavery of different types of evils prevailing in those days. But unfortunately, those remained whims and fancies. Dreams made have shattered. Barely any day passes unnoticed when we do not come across exposition of Scams one after other regardless of the state and nation. There are hardly any strata of society which is not plagued by the Corruption. India is falling as one among top 50 corrupt nations of the world and our state is one among top ten states of the country which is afflicted by the horrible menace. Be it the police or different units of the Civil administration especially Education, Forest, Revenue, Medical, CA&PD, Engineering, Social welfare department etc., Corruption has grown unabated and does not show any sign of check. How unfortunate it is, that despite making best efforts in evolving means and measures, procedures, rules and regulations and adopting the RTI Act with consistent efforts and regular changes in its laid guidelines to make it more useful and promoting the policy of cashless economy, digital transactions, linking of Aadhaar Card as mandatory base for linking various economic accounts under one umbrella prior transactions have not yet met with the desired results.
The basic cause behind such undesirable scenario seems to me of lack of national spirit among us. We are more rooted and concerned our own selfish interests. We live life of double standards. When it comes to sacrifice, we pin hope on the other to deliver. Until and unless we rise above such parochial tendencies the monster of corruption shall keep us haunting at every nook and corner. Corruption has given genesis to injustice and exploitation. The sufferers after being duped once instead of fighting with this disease rather prefers to be exploited than holding the strength to expose the nefarious designers by merely accepting it to be the part of system and governance which in the end results in to the perpetuation and compounding of the issue.
The recent sensational exposures made by our Governor Sh. Satya Pal Malik regarding the much awaited J&K Govt. employees Group Medical insurance policy with Reliance company being full of fraud and issuing the orders for scrapping it, illegal Selection of 582 bank officials made by the Banking authorities at the best of previous regime holders and thereby depriving the share of deserving ones, Fraudulent selections of 28 posts in Khadi and Village Industries Board, Selection of a KAS officer without any appearance in the PSC examination, Multi crore scam in Public Health Engineering department in Handwara Kashmir are few latest tips of the iceberg that have come out of the bag. How many more revelations like mentioned events can be there in the near future should not be construed as startling events.
Right since year 2000, Central Vigilance Commission has been putting up tremendous efforts in bringing down the curtain of monstrous corruption by organizing Vigilance Awareness Week every year in the month of October/November, most of the time coinciding with the birthday celebrations of stalwart Sh. Vallab Bhai Patel, profoundly remembered for his great contribution in integrating Indian nation .Endeavour's are made by holding workshop, seminars, debates, conferences ,displaying hoardings and sharing messages to spread awareness about ill effects of corruption in state and society. At the district level, District Vigilance Officers are expected to deliver but it is painful to share here that most of the time these DVO's have been found trying to shield their men instead of taking any strong action themselves or forwarding their cases to probe by the Vigilance sleuths and for taking appropriate action warranted under law. Not only this, add to the agony, if any case is being ever forwarded, political interferences and senior bureaucratic pressures are laid too much and those at the helm of the affairs has to budge to show favoritism. In order to curb the corruption, this practice needs to be denounced at all costs and zero tolerance must be adopted by the Commissioner/Director of the ACB/VO/CVC over these matters. This shall be the first wall to fight the corruption. Once the investigating officer/enquiry officer feels safe and secure, there is little chance of any deviation from the right path of investigation. Act of padding to save a culprit shall wean away and the charge sheet shall bear dividends at the end of day for the betterment of both state and society.
Corruption takes place at two different levels i.e Macro level and at the micro level. At the macro level,the biggest issue is related to unholy nexus in floatation of the connived corruption during the tendering process allotment, purchases, permit issuance, license supply for opening industries or small factories, transfer of the amount against the completed works etc. in all big projects be it in Airways, Railways, Defence, Security, Engineering etc. In such type of events, both the giver and receiver are the true beneficiaries and transfer of the share from one end to other end is conveniently passed on and layered without raising any sort of doubt in the public eye. In such type of processes, things must be made transparent on the internet and should have public access to the society and state for each one to go through and analyze what has happened.
At the micro level, a thing gets reported but sometimes they are more exaggerated than the actual realities. First of all, the basic thing that should be kept in mind is to first of all accept only those complaints which bear certain credentials and those which are anonymous or pseudonymous must not be given weight age. The policy division of the Vigilance Organisation should rely on one separate identified unit which may solely take the initiative secretly in garnering the facts in order to minimize the wastage of time and energy. It is not easy to collect the threads quickly. It is truly cumbersome process. So sufficient time should be kept at the disposal of such unit members. The reason to emphasize is that such types of complaints are mostly made to settle ones personal scores and they are not the true whistle blowers. Such types of complaints bear no productive results and in the end only add to the sheer wastage of time, space and sap the energy of the investigating officer as well as of the institution. Second the volume of the complaints that are being received and further distributed among the investigating officers must be of qualitative nature and should be lesser in numbers. It should be the policy of the organization to send the complaints back to the DVO;s for preliminary probe with the time bound instruction of providing feed back to the feeder unit. Merely laying stress on quantative disposal of the lodged complaints in an year does not serve the purpose until and unless they do not yield startling results to become an eye opener for everyone. Thirdly, lesser the number of issues at the hand of the I.O ,the more he/she shall be able to devote quality time in the particular investigation with the sole objective to extract the facts and not with an intent to shed off the burden merely to appease the bosses commanding him/her and asking to deliver irrespective of the fact that what a case will meet the fate at the end in the court. Fool proof investigation should be done to nail the culprits.
The prosecution wing of the institution must be having the men of integrity .They should be really above suspicion and well versed command over the subject. Their raised observations should be related to the case and not just to fill the file in return to the I.O. They should serve as a guiding factor. There must be an internal vigilance to keep eye even upon those who have been handed over the cases. Too err is human both at the IO/Prosecution level as well as those who are helping hands in moving the files from one table to the other within organization. Reverse trap must be made an important part of the organization. The trap amount must be immediately compensated to the complainant /victim by the govt. because it takes years together to conclude the case in the court and on the other hand, the complainant remains deprived unnecessarily for no fault of him. Apart, it must be realized that an investigation process is very hard consuming work and only few persons can sustain the pressures of such long ordeals that an IO is bound to face and go through to conduct a fair and transparent investigation. So while entrusting the task by the organization, it must first of all watch the interest, caliber, aptitude, knowledge, experience, stamina and personal integrity of the investigating officer. An officer deprived of these innate qualities cannot do justice with the case which can erode the image of the organization upon acquittal of the accused unharmed, thus further leading to the growth of public mistrust.
There should be no delay from GAD in according the sanction for the filing the charge sheet. Once booked after due PE/Verification, there remains no chance of any malafide intention of falsely implicating the alleged accused the case. But often it is observed that randomly pick and choose policies are made by GAD or unnecessarily delayed process is advocated to afford undue benefit for the best reason known to the administration. These measures often prove painstaking and cause embarrassment to the institutional members badly. Most of the time it is seen that records are not provided by the concerned authorities from where they are sought. Dilly dallying practices are adopted to hamper the speed of the investigation.
And above all, the corruption is rampant in the courts itself. No doubt, the constitution does give us the right to contest in the court of law for meeting out injustice at some one's hands but always casting doubt upon the integrity, accountability, professionalism of the organization creates flutter in the social circle and mockery of the institution. The purpose of the organization is never to dent any one's image but when there remains no chance to give benefit of doubt only then cases under relevant section of law are registered. It is very unfortunate that after making concrete investigations regarding the dead woods serving in different units of the state administration, Govt. dismissed their services in last over 12 years running over than 150 but again the courts have given them respite without issuing any warning. What message they have carried to other employees in the state can be well gauged form these type of court decisions.
Such moves of the courts instead of issuing strong deterrence have set bad examples encouraging to the people of corrupt mindset to keep corrupt practices alive. It is enjoined upon the courts to deliver exemplary decisions to nip the evils in the bud instead of delaying the pronouncements. In short, corruption cannot be fought single handedly.
Everyone has to take pledge to curb it excellence. It has to deal with on war footing like we fight with cancerous diseases. It has to be presumed as an ailment afflicting society. Last stringent laws can only put a check but eradication can take only when we make it as a part of curriculum to teach moral value and inculcate in the coming generation about its pros and cons. |
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