How to eliminate corruption and implement accountability in India?

Question

Honest people are afraid.They do not have the resources and financial power to contest the elections.They are threatened, maimed and even killed. The police is hand-in-hands with mafias and dons. We are forced to vote and elect only from the corrupt politicians.

Please check this question also for a solution.
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Amd4BP0pcKJm_tvgdvwSEbP6HQx.?qid=20060916045014AA9M3Vv

Answer 1

if there were an easy answer to this we could apply it all over the world and have world peace to boot!

Answer 2

For the past many years corruption has been a major issue in India. This problem after being neglected has grown so far that it is now tough to remove corruption. As you rightly said honest people are crushed in India. Because of which we hardly can see any honest person around us. We need to take right steps at least now or else it will be too late. Now each and every politician is corrupt, tomorrow a day can come when everyone will be corrupt. Corruption is never one-sided. If we stop giving bribe, the other person will automatically stop taking it. If the problem is within us there isn't any point blaming others. Even if we make sure we are not corrupt then we can reduce corruption in our society.

Answer 3

Corruption is an universal problem. It is very high in developing countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. All the three organs of the government - legislature, executive and judiciary have become poluted with red tapism, nepotism and corruption. People too are corrupted. During the elections, they sell their valuable votes. The people who can purchase the votes contest the elections. So naturally, money decides the nature of the government that we are going to have. The bureaucrats do not come to the rescue of the common people but they dance according to the tunes of the politicians because they enjoy a share that the political leaders throw at them. The judiciary was the only organ that enjoyed the faith of the common people. But undue delay at the trial stage, giving more time to the culprits with a view to destroy the prime witnesses to make the case weak and forcing the legal system to surrender to the desires of the political leaders - all these factors lead the common people to lose their faith in the judicial system. 'Justice delayed is justice denied', is still continuing with more vigour and vitality. Less said the better about the police and religious heads. Both have become the handmaids of the political leaders. In such a system, how can we hope to eradicate the corruption? Without the awareness of the people, duty consciousness of the civil servants, proper leadership and service-mindedness of the leaders, sincere preaching by the religious leaders with true message of religions, we wouldn't be able to eliminate the problem of corruption. In this struggle, you and I should be the first to join the anti-corruption movement. Are you ready?

Answer 4

Most of us feel that if "we had good politicians and bureaucrats, India would be a better place to live in.

The real change would come when the people start demanding accountability and the government is forced to respond. Then it would not be easy for the governments to go astray."

* * *

Corruption is there because of 2 reasons:

1. Secrecy, and lack of accountability!

When you take any service from a private firm, you get all the detailed information from them. This is either uploaded on to the website, or is usually available at the office itself. You can DEMAND the info on where they spent the money you paid them. And if they don't give them to you, you go to a consumer court (as many people do) and sue them for cheating (which does usually go in favour of the consumer-complaintant).

On the other hand, govt corruption thrives in secrecy. When a neighbour of mine did not pay a bribe to the policeman who came to verify the residence address, his passport application was not cleared. Numerous trips to the office yielded nothing. The officers even refused to tell him what was wrong, or what he could do to work on the situation. They just kept hinting at the police bribe probably being the issue.

He then filed an RTI application asking for the reason for the delay in the passport, and the person/department responsible for this. (Officially, the govt says that an applicant will receive his passport within 3 months of applying.)

2 days later, a policeman came to verify the address, and a week later he got his passport.

Check out this blogspot to see how a college student used the "Right to Information Act" to expose corruption.
http://mohitsinghania.blogspot.com/2006/09/fight-begins.html

2. Monopoly

If 10 years ago, you went to get a phone connection from MTNL, and the guy at the counter asked for a bribe, you would not have an option, and would have paid up.

Today, if something like this happens, you can simply walk out and go to a Reliance/ Tata/ Hutch..... store and get better rates.

However, if you went to get a passport or a drivers license, and the guy asked for a bribe, what can you do? Nothing.

Now think...what if the govt allowed private firms to take care of front-end customer service at the passport office or the RTO. If HDFC, UTI and PNB were all given this contract, and you were dissatisfied with the service at one, you would walk into the others office. Moreover, if UTI noticed a corrupt HDFC employee, they would try to expose them and gain some mileage for their own firm.

This is why you will find comparatively zero corruption in the private sector. Competition keeps them on their toes.

* * *

People are not bad, or evil. The systems are bad - under the right system, we can get the results we want. A corruption-free society. RTI is the first step in the right direction. DTP comes next.

Answer 5

y years corruption has been a major issue in India. This problem after being neglected has grown so far that it is now tough to remove corruption. As you rightly said honest people are crushed in India. Because of which we hardly can see any honest person around us. We need to take right steps at least now or else it will be too late. Now each and every politician is corrupt, tomorrow a day can come when everyone will be corrupt. Corruption is never one-sided. If we stop giving bribe, the other person will automatically stop taking it. If the problem is within us there isn't any point blaming others. Even if we make sure we are not corrupt then we can reduce corruption in our society.

Answer 6

Now the money value is reducting day by day due to inflation and other factors, say for example the cost of living is escalated and the manpower is not cheap any more.
Politics play an important role due to our democracy. Any person not having any knowledge can enter and rule the country if he has money power and muscle power(purchased).
No political meeting is succesful without organising with the money payments to the participants.
Likely no major or minor contracts either while awarding or while settling the bills from the govt, money plays an important role.

In my view to eliminate corruption and to implement let our government discontinue the money circulation notes to a lower denominations banning higher denominations.
Further all the banks including RBI should issue plastic cards where the money transactions to be made minimal.
For every purchase the people should use plastic money which should directly charge the revenue to the govt and to serve the needs of people instead of cash. Every transaction is accountable to everybody from politician to a common man.
Then how the corruption will work. I feel this method may take little confusion to the people initially and later they will adjust and welcome.

Answer 7

Presently, the Nation and the citizen are interfaced through another citizen. The individuals are usually ( not all) self centred and once both the system (Nation) and the people depend on such individuals, the transaction becomes corrupt. In the technologically advanced society if the people interact with the system ( Nation) through technology, the corruption can be significantly eliminated. This requires Engineering of Nation's development based on advanced scientific and technological solutions.

A Nation ( Governing system) which lags behind its citizens (few, but troublesome ) in using technology for its management can not contain the corruption.

Even before India could achieve sufficient literacy level among the people the new knowledge gap in using technology will add new dimension to the problem of corruption.

Educational programmes in rural areas should be upgraded immediately with computers and information technologies. The teachers should be trained to meet the new challenges.

Answer 8

It may be far fetched dream to eliminate corruption altogether in India since corruption has reached its peak. However, if the people are educated about the ill effects of a corrupt administration in their day to day lives and if they are exhorted not to allow the corrupt politicians to bribe them for getting their votes and winning the elections, half the battle against corruption is won. The people should also be educated not to pay bribes to the public servants to get their works done. They should on the other hand protest and publicise about demand of bribe from the public servants who are paid from the tax collected from the general public.
If there are no bribe givers, there can be no corruption. Common man on the street should be empowered to question the corruption of the bureaucrats and the politicians. The print and electronic media should play an active role in bringing out the corrupt practices in the governments. The media should take an active part in educating the common man about their rights to get honest and clean administration and in highlighting the accountability of the bureaucrats and the politicians.
The Judiciary should give priority to dispose the corruption cases against the high and mighty in the government and should quickly award exemplary punishments to those found guilty.

Answer 9

. This problem after being neglected has grown so far that it is now tough to remove corruption. As you rightly said honest people are crushed in India. Because of which we hardly can see any honest person around us. We need to take right steps at least now or else it will be too late. Now each and every politician is corrupt, tomorrow a day can come when everyone will be corrupt. Corruption is never one-sided. If we stop giving bribe, the other person will automatically stop taking it. If the problem is within us there isn't any point blaming others. Even if we make sur

Answer 10

This is a very involved and serious question and there is no one line answer to it. But the very fact that thinking persons have started pondering over the issue is a good sign. One must recognise no one is born corrupt. It develops within the system, just like bacteria. In a dead body, when the brain stops working and the regulatory mechanisms do not function, various bacteria grow causing decay. Similarly in a society when regulatory systems do not function, we get what we have to day in India. One of the important limbs of the regulatory mechanism is the judiciary. In our country, this is very weak and it has no concern for time. First this has to be improved and made responsive.
The second aspect is transparency. This can be brought about by defining efficiency parameters eg. how long it should take to issue a passport, how long it should take to make a ration card etc. Adequate support should be taken from the IT sector.
And last but not the least, people have to be educated and informed and they should question. This is what happens in the western countries. In India because of our fudal background, the questioning is not there. There is too much power at the helm of secretaries and ministers without responsibility or answerability. Process of devolution of power has to be thought of. But it has been confined to formation of smaller states. This alone is not the answer. And finally, the educated must exercise their franchise.

Answer 11

By providing right to information to everyone for all government matters. Even if they sign any contract everyone should have right to know how much money they are spending for different works
and there should be experts who can analyse and tell whether the spending has been done properly or not and the person responsible should be made accountable.All his bank accounts should be tracked because if there is any corruption the ultimate beneficiary is the same person. People cant do much u have to make proper system to eliminate corruption and government has to take initiative. It will be a bit slow process but at the end we will get the desired results