Fight corruption within yourself, say crime-fighters

“Corruption is bad enough, but to tolerate corruption is worse.” These words by Sir William Fullbright set the tone for the launch of a website (www.serveoursociety.com) dedicated to fighting corruption, on Saturday.

Police commissioner Shankar Bidari said while it is the duty of a police officer to protect the ‘health of the society’ sometimes it is necessary for the officer to administer bitter medicine to cure the ailment. Quoting anecdotes, Bidari said corruption has always existed in society. “The two chariots of society are ‘jana’ (people) and ‘dhana’ (money). Persons who can mobilise the people where rich, and persons who were rich could mobilise the people. This is true even today.”

He said that despite the fact that corruption seems to be so rampant today, “there is still hope for society” as long as people wake up to fight it. “If builders follow rules during construction and truck drivers ferry the accepted amount of load, will there then be a necessity to bribe the officer in charge to get away with it,” he asked.

“The prime minister said we should have zero tolerance to corruption,” said Lokayukta justice Santhosh Hegde during the discussion. “We have achieved this by adding so many zeros to scams and the money that is being derived out of corruption, but we forget all about corruption.”