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Re: Corruption
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At 05:58 AM 7/11/00 -0700, Navaneethakrishnan wrote:
Reg. your excellent example below, as per my earlier promise to trace ALL
such cases to corrupt politicians, I will show you the chain of corruption
involved here.
Everyone knows the DTO offices in India are corrupt, including IAS officers
who head the Transport Deptts. There are 2 types of IAS officers, honest
and dishonest. The honest generally try to improve things, but ALL
proposals to streamline the procedures and simplify are invariably struck
down in note sheets by Minsters of Transport who are being 'fed' enormous
amounts - being a share of the bribes you pay as a citizen. The dishonest
IAS officer revels in the current system and fills up his pockets and
builds multiple houses across the globe. If the honest IAS officer tries to
transfer the dishonest employees (DTO), he is first transferred from there.
Asking for change at the procedural level is easy, getting it done is
IMPOSSIBLE until our Ministers want to be honest. That is why I ONLY talk
of political corruption. Once that goes, the system will be cleaned up in 5
minutes. Until all Indians realize this, we are permanently doomed. There
are at least 3000 honest IAS officers in India, made impotent by corrupt
politicians. Do something about the system, citizens. Make the politicians
want to be honest. Or let us live with it and stop crying about this mess.
>>My REPLY IS long, but you asked for it!.
>
>>Dr. Sanjeev: I can only speak from my experiences and since I am neither an
>>lawyer or political scientist, I can’t pinpoint a law that needs to be in
>>place. That is for you guy’s to figure it out.
>
>The following experiment that I did awhile ago will tell the members of IPI
>the kind of system that India works under and will negate the suggestion by
>Dr. Sanjeev that Indians don’t have research mentality.
>
>Experiment:
>
>Aim: To compare the time and effort it takes to change the address in the
>driving license in India verses U.S..
>
>
>India: Normally no one will care to change the address in driving license,
>because of the hassle. But since I wanted to follow all the rules, my
>adventure began.
>
>
>Day 1:
>I went to the driving license office, and waited for about an hour (there
>were very few people and if the employee’s weren’t so busy doing so much
>hard work, they would have surely seen me earlier. I understand!!). In the
>mean time,no one will tell me the procedure for changing the address in my
>license. After another hour or so, a non-govt person, (for whom by the way
>the staff seem to have all the time), told me to give the job to a broker
>and said that he will do it for me for a fee. I refused. And waited for
>another hour. Finally I was told to come tomorrow, since the “High” official
>was going on inspection this afternoon.
>
>
>Day 2:
>After the default one hour waiting, I was told by the same non-govt person,
>told me to give the job to a broker and said that he will do it for me for a
>fee. I refused. And waited for another, and was finally told to come
>tomorrow, because of some reason (I forgot, I should have taken notes, but
>was hungry waiting, and muttering to myself).
>
>Day 3:
>
>I took a real initiative and barged in to the office and asked one of the
>employees, what do I have to do to get the address changed in my license? .
>He told me.
>
>1) Go to a particular bank (Just 30 KM away, not far really!) and pay Rs.5
>and get the receipt along with a photocopy of the new address in my ration
>card. I was determined to finally have the tryst with my destiny, and went
>to the bank. After the mandatory wait , the bank employee told me to get the
>form for filling the receipt from the district office (thankfully, only two
>blocks away) . So , I got the form from the district office, went to the
>bank paid Rs.5 and came back to the drivers license office.
>
>And waited…..
>Finally I had enough courage to barge in to the “high” officials office and
>asked that my address in the drivers license be changed. The Non-govt person
>who was helping the poor over worked “High” official were in the office and
>looked at me as though they I had come to steal some state secret that they
>were so patriotically protecting. The Non-govt person whispered some thing
>in the ear of the high official and the high official finally signed the
>form for getting the addressed changed. Then I went to another employees,
>waited a few minutes and at last I got my address changed without bribing a
>single Govt. Staff.
>
>What a triumphed feeling I had? I spent three days, several miserable hours
>of heat, dust on the road, wasted the precious petrol on my car, (which by
>the way, we all should conserve due to the heavy oil import bill).
>
>U.S.:
>Went to the office during Lunch time, waited for a few minutes in queue, got
>the addressed changed, (of course paid the fee)got a temporary license, and
>got the permanent license in mail in two weeks. It took less than 30
>minutes.
>
>Now, Dr.Sanjeev I know these are not “scientific” experiments and there
>might have been several noise factors. Please pardon.
>
>
>I understand that Indian situation and Govt. Staff are lowly paid , but that
>doesn’t give them any right to treat the citizen as they like.
>
>This I hope will answer your questions. I can’t tell which section of which
>law has to be amended to make the Indian staff more responsible. Sorry.
>
>
>Dr.Sanjeev, I have nothing against you, and in spite of the fact that you
>don’t like praise, I am honestly surprised and happy that there are a few
>individuals like you in India, who are trying to do something good.
>
>Getting simple things done, which need Govt. approval should not be a
>monumental task. Make laws simple, transparent, and don’t allow the excuse
>that since the Govt. Servant is lowly paid, he has the right to earn money
>through wrongful means.
>
>
>What I have mentioned is only one side of the story, Today in order to get
>admission for kinder garden, one has to pay lots in donation, I don’t expect
>the poor Govt. Employee to come up with that kind of money if he is honest.
>
>Ultimately, Corruption exists and will continue to exist, unless the
>difference between the have’s and the have not’s is not reduced. I.e.,
>Every avarage, simple Indian should have an opportunity to honestly make
>money, have a decent life, and is able to send his/her children to schools
>without donation among other things.
>
>IAS, IPS and host of other institutions have, I am afraid forgotten that
>they are there to serve the people and the people are not there to be
>managed or spoon fed.
>
>A nation where its citizens can live with dignity & pride, is a nation I
>want to live in. About the laws that has to be in place for such a nation, I
>DON'T know!,and can't be specific.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
>Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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>
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This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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