CORRUPTION - 5 INNOVATIVE WAYS OF BATTLING CORRUPTION

Corruption in India

Housing, food grains, sports, telecom, defence, police, roads, industry, feedstock, stamp papers, medecines, oil, etc. etc..the list is so long that it can well run into a thousand lines. Each  of these sectors, at some pont in the past, have been rocked by a major scam. Many of these scams were of such huge magnitde that they significantly impaired the reputation and credibility of the India. I still remember the massive public outrage they used to generate. People often felt cheated and wronged by their elected representatives whever a scam surfaced and reactions that followed were usually packed with quite a charge.

Nothing of the sort happens now. This does not mean that there has been no scams in current times. Infact, theres been more scams in the past decade than at any point in the past. It is just that people have become so desensitised to the entire thing that even the biggest of scams hardly succeeds in inducing any reaction or outrage from them. Most of of modern day scams are discovered, debated, reacted, harvested and then entombed by the self proclaimed saviours of the society - News Channels, who are looking for ways to boost their TRPs. In this context, the feat achieved by Anna Hazare and his followers is definately commendable. Their seemingly sincere and honest attempts have been far more successful  in re-sensitisng people to the issue of corruption than by anybody in the past. What seems to have been working for them is the fact that they seem to have a very clear idea as to what they want out of their movement. However despite initial success, the movement seems to have lost some steam. Still, it is too early to pronounce a judgement on the Lokpal Movement, the coming days i am sure will bring new surprises. Till we wait for Lokpal to make its way through the narrow lanes leading to the parliament, here are 5 new innovatve ideas against corruption which you may ruminate on -

1. Bring all transactions and interactions of industry, government and quasi government departments on the web. Time required to develop- 1 Year  Benefits : 80-90% reduction in corruption involving smaller denominations. Relief to large segment of public.
2.  Strict mandate of disposal of all citizen grivances by appropriate authority in the state in 15 days. Time required to implement - 6 months. Benefits - Government is required to give satisfactory replies to citizens on time. this will put preassure on governments and bereaucracy to mend their ways.
3. Make police answerable to the judiciary instead of the executive. introduction of Jury based hearing and judgement in courts.Required time to implement - 1 year, Benefits - Police become answerable to courts only, this will remove interference from politicians. The additional charge of policing to the courts will put great power on the hands of the judges. To balance the same a jury based trial needs to be adopted.
4. Introduction of Reward and Recognition Scheme at all levels  in the government for incentivising positive behaviour and encouraging problem solving among government staff. Centralised Central/State Govt HR Cell to centrally manage all HR functions including salary processing, transfers, performance appraisal evaluation etc. Introdction of purely performance linked promotion scheme. Required time to implement  - 1 year. Benefit - Higher morale , productivity, alienation of subjectivity/ bias from decisions like transfer, promotion etc.
5. Atleast two or three secular festivals should be identified and celebrated at all levels from top to bottom in a grand manner. Some festival 'rules' can be designed in a manner such that greater interaction between all citizen groups and classes and different government departments is achieved in the run up to the festival. Required time to implement - 1 year  Benefit - Interaction among citizens and government in a civil society helps in fostering cohesion and belongingness. Societies (even in India) where people and government have healthy regular interactions are more stable and less corrupt.

YF - IThink