-Key to Empowering the Indian Citizen

Removal Of Extortionary

PREPARED BY:DHRUVIN PATEL(11BEE021),ELECTRICAL ENG. DEPARTMENT,IT-NU.

Contents:

Introduction.What is extortionary corruption?Causes.Responsible for extortionary

corruption.Effects.Prevention.Conclusion.

The word “corruption” is very simple to spell but is extremely complicated to understand.

Technically, corruption is any kind of act of self-interest of using public services illegally.

Corruption is synonymous to bribery, immorality, wickedness etc.

Relating to morality it can be stated with an example that if you give 5 extra minute to a sick student in exam then it is against rule but is not a kind of corruption but if you give 4 extra minutes for rupees then it is a kind of corruption.

Introduction:

Corruption is not always visible but is always observable.

It means that corruption is an expression with or with out visibility which has an effectiveness on our life.

For example, shopkeepers often buffer the stocks, with a hope to earn future benefits it may or may be visible but effects us in the future desired by monopolisation.

“Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency.”

Types of corruption:1) Extortionary corruption2) Collusive corruption

In collusive corruption: Paid to public authority to fleece the general

public Loser here is the general public as cost of public

service goes up and efficiency goes down. All big scams that we hear about are of this

type. Does not affect the common man in his day to

day life but is somehow effective in character. like 2-G scams, adarsh housing, CWG scams, BOFORS scam etc.

Extortionary corruption?The middle class family and people

who are under poverty line are most suffering through extortionary corruption.

They have no choice otherwise they have to waste their time, money, opportunities if they deny bribe.

It is Forced primarily by government bodies and enforcement agencies.

It has been Less talked about and not highlighted by media since sum involved in individual cases is much less though adds up to a humungous total to corruption in India.

It is absent in most developed countries.

It has been seen more in developing and under-developed countries

Mostly seen in India, Mexico, Thailand, Pakistan, Russia, UK etc.

As per transparency international “The misuse of entrusted power for private gain crossing the impractical laws is known as extortionary corruption” Causes:

impractical laws bad laws

Where we see “Extortionary corruption” in daily life?

The amount paid for any clearance from the municipal department as well as district offices and state offices .

The commission paid for getting water connection, gas connection etc.

The extra money paid to get your property tax sorted out.

The extra amount paid for getting driving licence of vehicles instantly.

The amount paid for getting income certificate and backward class certificate in TDO offices as well as magistrate offices.

If we want to meet our relative in jail, we have to give some amount to jailer.

Traffic polices take money which is more than decided by government if we break any traffic rules.

Even in schools, hostels also, for getting admission we have to pay more money to the trust.

In public or competitive exams, people have to pay money for passing it as well as getting high rank.

For illegal construction, people pays high amount. In hospitals, for instantly service of treatment

people have to pay extra money. The visit fees demanded by inspector of any

government department if they arrive in offices/factory.

Causes for extortionary corruption:The main cause of extortionary corruption

is the imbalance between availability and requirement.

When we require a thing if it is available in abundance or with ease, we pay the just price.

But in case it is fewer in number, we try to adopt other means to procure it, leading to corruption.

On the other side of the coin if the person extending service is having enough resources he would not think of asking extra. 

Second question is resultant of the first. Once a person gets the taste of easy money he gets addicted to it.

Initially it is his need and later it becomes his practice. It is due to this addiction that they amass huge amounts and dump it in foreign banks.

There could be indefinite causes of extortionary corruption in this world. There is no one who do not do it, but it could vary from small grades to higher ones. Major causes can be as follows:-

1)Loop holes: There are many loop holes in our system which is taken as advantage by people to exploit them by every means. Right from the private offices to public offices people know the loop holes and the lack of administrative rules and hence leads to extortionary corruption.

2)Illiteracy Most of the people in India do not know about there powers as a citizen. They themselves becomes helpless while dealing to other people as they are unaware of the working system. If they are fair and know how the system works there is no one who can cheat them and exploit them.

3)Impatient Many of us are impatient and try to break the rules and regulation. For example we try to break traffic rules while travelling on road and further try to bribe officials to avoid the challans. So we must adhere to legal rules and if we are guilty then we should follow the challan procedure and not try to bribe officials.

4)Greed  This is the biggest problem with all of us. We are never satisfied with our existing resources and always try to get more by uneven means. Greed leads to corruption from lower levels to higher levels. Corruption at higher level is responsible for degradation of Indian economy as all the nations money is being eroded to foreign banks.

Responsible for extortionary corruption:

According to me, Government and we citizens, both are responsible for this evil.

Its more tilted towards Government which is responsible for this corruption, if they penalize people who are corrupt then everything will fall in place, and we can't blame ourselves.

And its not that we want to bribe an official, but its the way the government has made its image with people and people by default think that they should bribe to get things done and if one opposes, will stand alone with no support.

And will come into stark criticism from his own people and will fall into the trap that the Government and its officials who ask for more, and also Government which is not paying enough salary to officials which is making one to be corrupt.

 

1). Lekhpal, a government official, whose job is to examine, report and keep all records of lands. But in currently there have been a lot of cases in the court, which are based on lekha vibhag land dispute. Why is it so? This is due to the flaws in the department of . For their personal benefit, they become corrupt. As far as this department is concerned, if the people pay attention towards professional accountability, there shall be no land dispute. This would account for a fairly large number of controls over corruption.

Where Extortionary corruption exits?

2). Second one is the revenue department. In this department, a fairly large number of the employees are corrupt. They take bribes and leave the person who didn’t even give tax off the hook. For e.g. income tax. If every person is honest towards his/her profession then a heavy loss of Indian government may be saved.

Where Extortionary corruption exists?

3). Another type of profession being corrupt is medical department. There are many government hospitals like public health centers in villages and city. There are some doctors, appointed for the treatment of the people. But in government hospital there have been seen no proper treatment for the common man. Doctors have started opening their own private clinic for earning more money. The public hospitals are lacking in enough medicines and other required facilities. Doctors may not be found on the scheduled timings. The poor people, who only depend upon the government hospitals, are suffering and they can’t afford the treatment of the private hospital. Thus doctors need to give their job professional accountability.

Where Extortionary corruption exits?

4). And most is the department of judiciary. We know there are several lakhs of cases which are in pending in the courts in India. The process of justice is very delayed in our country. Due to this, the numbers of cases are increasing day by day. If the proceedings are fast, people may see that if they do wrong or commit any crimes then they will have to face punishment right then. People thus will hesitate to take bribe. To recall and mention a famous quote here, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’.

Where Extortionary corruption exits?

Effects:The effect of extortionary corruption has many dimensions related to

political economic social environmental effects. 

Political effects:In political sphere, extortionay corruption

impedes democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic system, public institutions and

offices may lose their legitimacy when they misuse their power for private interest.

Extortionary corruption may also result in negative consequences such as encoring cynicism and reducing interest of political participation , political instability , reducing political competition, reducing the transparency of political decision making, distorting political development and sustaining political activity based on patronage, clientelism and money, etc.

Social effects:In our society, the impact of extortionary corruption

is often manifested through political intolerance, problems of accountability and transparency to the public, low level of democratic culture, principles of consultation and participation dialogue among others.

Extortionary corruption discourages people to work together for the common good.

Frustration and general apathy among the public result in a weak civil society.

Demanding and paying bribes becomes the tradition. It also results in social inequality and widened gap between the rich and poor, civil strive, increased poverty and lack of basic needs like food, water and drugs, jealousy and hatred and insecurity.

Economical effects: The economic effects of extortionary corruption can be

categorized as minor and major. However, both in one way or the other have serious impact

on the individual community and country. First and foremost, extortionary corruption leads to the

depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for increased costs of goods and

services, the funnelling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high profile projects at the expense of the much needed projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of potable water, diversion and misallocation of resources, conversion of public wealth to private and personal property, inflation, imbalanced economic development, weakling work ethics and professionalism, hindrance of the development of fair in market structures and unhealthy competition there by deterring competition.

Large scale extortionay corruption hurts the economy and impoverishes entire population.

HOW CAN WE REDUCE IT?[I]The first tool is ‘education’. With the help of education we can reduce

extortionay corruption. By teaching morality in homes and schools. According to a survey conducted by India

today the least corrupt state is Kerala, the reason being that in Kerala literacy rate is highest. So we can see how education decreases corruption.

Those who are uneducated do not know about the process, provisions and procedures through which they can get justice.

Corrupt public servants try to make fool of them and often demands for bribe. It is due to unawareness in the field of law, public rights and procedures thereof that a common and an uneducated suffer out of the corrupt society.

[II]We need to change the government processes. If the members of the governing body are government

officials, there will certainly be less reports of the criminal cases.

The reverse may be possible only when there are no more criminal politician in our government. The provision is that, if there is any case filed against a person then he would not be eligible for election.

But if we see hundred politicians then about sixty percent of them would be criminal in nature. If these criminal politicians command us and make laws, what types of law would be formed, we can guess!

Thus during election, we should keep in mind the person for whom we shall not vote. In India there is a provision that no person as a criminal shall be allowed as a Member of Parliament or member of legislative.

We also have to minimize the power of government.

[III] We can reduce corruption by increasing direct contact between government and the governed:

E-governance could help a lot towards this direction. In a conference on, ”Effects of Good Governance and Human Rights” organized by National Human Right Commission, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam gave an example of Delhi metro rail system and online railway reservation as good governance and said that all the lower courts should follow the explanation of the Supreme Court and High Court and make the judgments online.

Similarly, Sivraj Patil said that the Right to Information should be used for transparency.

We have legal rights to know any information. According to this act, (Right to Information act 2005), generally people should follow the procedure of law given to then when their work is not being implemented in a proper way in public services.

This act is a great help in the order to control corruption as well as transparency.

[IV] We have to improve lack of effective corruption treatment: That means, instruments which are in

use, are not running properly. For example Prevention of Corruption Act

1988 came into force on 9th September, 1988. But corruption is still flourishing. Why?

Because of weak actions and proceedings towards corrupt people.

People don’t have any fear of this act and the court. The act may thus be revised for its better implementation. So we have to execute law properly with certain changes.

[V] We have to increase Lack of transparency and professional accountability:We should be honest to ourselves. Until

and unless we will not be honest, we can’t control extortionay corruption.

If each of us is honest towards our profession, then extortionary corruption will automatically decrease. We need to pay attention towards professional accountability.

i.e., how much we are faithful and truthful towards our profession.

Extortionary corruption may be controlled by handling five major professions: Lekhpal, medical, revenue, police and judicial.

Prevention of extortionary corruption:

One solution is, more and more honest people should enter IAS and IPS positions. These are key positions. Once these are filled with honest people, politicians we will find it relatively more and more difficult to continue corruption. Today many young people go for engineering, medicine and MBA course. IAS and IPS are not on top of the options list. Parents also encourage the children to go for engg, etc. Mainly because of IT boom. This may be easily said but difficult to practice.

Law should be powerfully executed. Enforcement of laws should be taken to

reduce extortionary corruption. Government should make one web-site

and toll-free number on which people can easily complain against any extortionary corruption(whose name should not be published) and the information officer should have to report within specified period of time and if he is not able to do it then he should be penalised ₹250/day.

Over all, if he or she is fined more than ₹25,000 than legal action should be taken on him or her.

Government should reward citizens who gives information of corruption.

NGO and other institutes should come forward and extend a helping hand to Government and should work in the wellbeing of citizens.

Conclusion:Extortionary Corruption in India has

completely derailed its progress made in so many years.

After independence the sole dream of every citizen was a free India.

Extortionary corruption though has leashed it in its vicious trap.

India through its constitution empowered the citizens and thought of a society which would be free of any unwanted influences but extortionary corruptions at different levels has made it hollow from inside, democracy is a toy in the hands of corruption and thus citizens are not getting the rights and benefits what our forefathers desired.

Strong steps should be taken by the Government (also judiciary) of India so that every culprit who has been taking national advantages in form of corruption should be punished.

Government should bring some changes in administrative procedure to cover all the loop holes so that no exploitation should occur.

“We must work together to throw away this evil from ourselves and from our nation.” 

Bibliography and References:

[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India

[2] www.civilserviceindia.com › Subject

[3] www.indiaagainstcorruption.com/

[4] www.thehindu.com › Opinion › Lead

[5] articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Collections › Anna Hazare

30 Jul 2012 – NAGPUR:

[6] www.sharetipsinfo.com › Articles Directory

[7] www.preservearticles.com/.../short-essay-on-corruption-in-

India.html,13 Apr 2011 .

[8] www.thehindu.com › Opinion › Op-Ed

[9] economictimes.indiatimes.com › Topics

[10] info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/35971/mod04.pdf

[11] indiatoday.intoday.in/...corruption...

[12] trak.in/tags/business/2011/03/15/impact-of-corruption-on-indian-businesses-survey/

[13] ibnlive.in.com/newstopics/Corruption.html

[14] Tirole J. Hierarchies and bureaucracies: on the role of collusion in organizations, Journal

of Law, Economics and Organization 2010; 2(2); 181–214.

 

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?

QUESTIONS?