The Hindu 27.07.2009
Facts in urban corruption
Staff Reporter
Youth for Social Development conducts survey on corruption and bribery in Berhampur city.
BERHAMPUR: A workshop was held at Chatrapur to discuss the ‘urban corruption survey of Berhampur city’.
This workshop was chaired by the Ganjam district Collector V.K.Pandian. This workshop was aimed at analyzing the facts and ironies revealed by the urban corruption survey made by the ‘Youth for Social Development (YSD)’.Several administrative officials and citizen representatives attended this workshop. Mr Pandian opined that it was hard to change the psyche of bribe givers and bribe takers. According to him the best way to check corruption was to destroy the system that linked the two. He was hinting at the middlemen who played a major role in the corrupt practices and bribing at offices.
As per the survey the citizens of Berhampur pay up bribes worth 57.73 million rupees in a year to avail basic public services.
The survey found that 82 per cent of the population of the city was bribing to obtain basic public services. Most citizens felt they paid bribes to escape from undue hindrances and problems caused by officials.
The Berhampur Development Authority (BDA) and Land Record and Administration services were rated as the most corrupt institutions in Berhampur city.
They were followed by Public Distribution System and Drinking Water.
The YSD activists suggested that more transparency and streamlining of official procedures would lead to less corruption. According to Bibhu Prasad Sahu of the YSD, usually the citizens remained ignorant of the process through which their applications got processed in an office.
The middlemen and the corrupt officials usually used this ignorance to trap the gullible to collect bribe.
