NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD/CHENNAI, DECEMBER 3
Gujarat is one of the least corrupt states in the country while the southern State of Tamil Nadu stands third in the list, says India Corruption Survey 2019 conducted by a “non-political and non-government” agency, Transparency International.
Quoting Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel, a government release said that the survey was prepared by the private agency while taking responses of around 2 lakh people from 248 districts in 20 states. The survey recorded responses of 64% men and 36% women.
According to the release, 78% people in Rajasthan said they had to bribe to get their work done. Whereas Goa, Odisha, Kerala, and Haryana are among the least corrupt states, the release added.
“With an intention to have less human interface in the functioning of many government departments, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has got developed online systems and it has resulted in Gujarat emerging as a least corrupt state in the survey,” the release quoted Patel as saying.
In the release, Patel also cited a number of initiatives of the Rupani government to check corruption in the state like availability of online facilities for a number of key revenue services, online auction of mines, control over illegal mining through drone cameras, real time monitoring of 3,400 indicators of various departments through CM Dash Board initiative among others. Patel also mentioned that Anti-Corruption Bureau has been given wide powers by the state government apart from equipping it with modern gadgets like button cameras, pen cameras, voice recorder.
62pc Tamil Nadu people indulge in bribery
Around 62 per cent of people residing in Tamil Nadu have admitted that they have resorted to bribery to get their work done, revealed a survey by Transparency International India and Local Circles this year.
The India Corruption Survey, which was carried out to determine the level of domestic corruption in India and the role of citizens in it, had analysed over 1,90,000 responses given by Indian citizens. The report stated that 51per cent of Indians had admitted to resorting to bribery in government offices.
Out of the 62 per cent, 35 per cent said had paid bribes several times, while 27 per cent admitted that they had bribed once or twice.
On the other side of the spectrum, around 8 per cent said they were able to get their work done without paying a bribe and 35 per cent indicated that they didn’t feel the need to resort to bribery.
The report elaborated that most of the bribes paid in the state were made during property registrations and land issues, with at least 41 per cent of the people saying they paid bribes. Around 19 per cent admitted having bribed the municipal corporation while 15 per cent said that they had bribed the police. Close to 25 per cent stated that they had paid a bribe to other government organisations in Tamil Nadu.
Besides Tamil Nadu, citizens in Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Punjab had reported higher instances of corruption this year.
