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| Edited By: Rakesh Bhatnagar |Source: DNA |Updated: Dec 12, 2011, 12:30 AM IST
It’s worth recalling a Supreme Court judgment some three decades ago that upheld conviction of an assistant to the medical officer of a government hospital in Punjab who was “nabbed red handed” while taking a bribe of Rs20. He lost his job that would fetch him a take home salary of Rs150 a month.
He was a conduit to the medical officer who used to charge Rs15 for issuing fake medical certificates. He didn’t face any action because the ill-gotten money was not recovered from him.
Recently, a peon elevated as a clerk in a Madhya Pradesh government was caught having whopping Rs12 crore in movable and immovable assets. He doesn’t yield any authority to directly show any favour to a ‘needy’ person. But his various bosses were.
They haven’t been arrested for questioning.
A clerk at the Ghaziabad treasury office Ashutosh Asthana, who made a statement before the magistrate that some senior sessions judicial officers had swindled court staff’s provident fund and among others who benefited from the booty was a judge of the apex court and some from Allahabad High Court, died mysteriously in prison.
To sum up these cases reflect the gross corruption in which the victims were the ordinary persons but the beneficiaries were highly placed influential personnel. The big fish for which the top court is always anxious to be caught in the net had stealthily crossed the rough waters.
They fall under the controversial ‘C’ category of employees. The 2010 bribery barometer shows Indian tax payers paid bribe in different proportions with maximum 63.8% in police, followed by land services 62.5%, registry or permit services 61.4%, tax revenue 50.6% and the judiciary 44.8%.
People hailing from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) sector are estimated to have coughed up about Rs 9,000 million as bribe to avail basic and need-based services.
Is anyone listening?
