Corruption is the major issue facing India at present. This could potentially derail our growth and put us decades back. As stated by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, corruption engulfing India like cancer. This must be treated before it turns into terminal disease. I believe the following reforms are needed to treat this cancer as a starting point. I welcome any comments and suggestion to improve this proposal.
1. The punishment in India for corruption (for that matter any criminal activities) are less in comparison with developed nations. The law must be strengthened to deter anyone from being corrupt. The punishment should be in the range of 20 years to 35 years. Multiple counts should be sequential instead of parallel. This will pretty much lock them for life. Any ill earned asset should be recovered.
2. The punishment should be progressive. Meaning that higher official such as police officers, judges, ministers will attract highest punishment in comparison with lower level employees.
3. All the corruption cases should be completed within one year.
4. The appointment of anti-corruption wing should be based on their service records. The individuals must be impeccable. They should be independent from any interference from political appointees or higher ups from external organization. Any such interference should able be reported to CVC for action. CVC should be empowered to take action.
5. The appointment of constitutional positions such as CVC, Election Commissioner and others should be vetted thoroughly. The Committee should vet the list in open forum and recommend three names to Selection Committee (current setup). The appointment should be on consensus. In case of consensus not achievable, selection committee can recommend one name based on majority for up/down vote to parliament/assembly.
6. The Prime Minister, Chief Minister, President, Vice-President and Governors terms should be limited to maximum of 10 years.
7. The State and Central Ministers should also be limited to maximum of 15 years.
8. There is no term limit on MP, MLA and MLC. However they must reside in their constituency. Ministers are exempted from residency requirements as they need to stay in capital.
9. The MP, MLA and MLC should spend half of their time during non session period in their constituency. Violation of this could lead to disqualification.
10. Any corruption allegation against PM, CM and Ministers should be investigated by CVC. If CVC recommends filing a FIR and/or approved by Governor/President, the law should mandate the resignation of the individuals to face the charges.
11. The Nepotism is one of the root causes for corruption. The law should prohibit immediate family members succeeding to current constitutional positions such as President, vice-President, PM and CM for next three years as minimum.
12. The PM, CM, Ministers, Judges, MP, MLA and MLC should declare their assets every year. CVC should investigate if there is disproportionate increase.
13. Appointments of High Court and Supreme Court judges should be vetted properly may be in an open forum.
14. The PM, CM, Ministers, MLA/MP/MLC, Class 1 officers’ information should be available online particularly any information pertaining to assets, pending/past actions including favorable outcomes. This enables general public to know about the officials.
15. The current suggestion/Complaint process does not work well. The new process should allow them to email/mail to higher officials at central location for action. In case of corruption should be referred to Anti-Corruption Wing.
16. e-Governance should be implemented which should prevent subjective decision making.
17. Typically corruption comes into picture to get a favorable decision for their cause. This can be minimized by reducing the burecracy and make the process simple. For example, stamp duty can be charged purely based on Government assessed value. These values should be adjusted annually based on market condition every year. The adjustment can be done based on previous year sale price, inflation and other factors as determined. This will reduce the corruption as the rates are fixed and people can use the original transaction amount as it will not impact their stamp duty.
18. The above transactions must be through banking system eliminating /minimizing the cash payment.
19. The similar approach in Regional Transport Office, Collectorate, etc should follow the same process.
20. All police stations must be video monitored and record the video digitally in central location. This could clean lot of mess in Police stations.
21. The President, Vice-President, PM, CM and Ministers should not be doing any other job which require significant effort even if it does not involve financial benefit. For example, Board of directors/trustee in Charity which demands few hours of work every week/month. The reason is the above position requires lot of effort apart from serving their constituents. In real world, it is not practical to perform multiple roles at same time. May be holding party position such as President/Secretary while being CM could also be another scenario.
22. The age limit to serve in Assembly/Parliament should be set to 80 years.
23. The CVC should advertise the downfall of corruption to educate the public.
24. The Election commission should set realistic limits on election expenses for candidate (for Assembly 1 crore and Parliament 2 crores) and should be adjusted for inflation. Violations should be dealt seriously. Election commission should ensure integrity of election by preventing distribution of money and freebies during election.
25. Any report of Ministers’ Family/friends benefiting directly or indirectly should be investigated by CVC using appropriate resources. If proven Ministers’ must charged with misusing their power.
As it may sound, the cure for the cancer is known. But who will give and who will get the treatment?
ReplyDeleteThose who need to be punished are the ones who frame the laws which suit them
The idea here is instead of asking for a change specify what change is required. We came long way from Emergency era in many aspects. The last five years or so we are seeing reversal of that. We should fight it out. It is going to take time and energy but we can make it happen.
ReplyDeleteThe ideas are very nice & almost too good to be true. The real question is, who has the will to see even 1% of this getting implemented? While we can keep talking about multi crore scams, i beleive the real culprit of this menace lies within the grass roots. Be it the petty Rs 100 bribe paid to the traffic constable for writing off a speeding ticket or the 4000 rs bribe paid to get a electric connection for your newly constructed home. This 10% or 20% kick back on anything & everything has become a de facto and registered within our minds as something acceptable to fast track the process. To be fair, in some cases might prove benefecial & less of a hassle rather then to undergo the painful process of waiting in huge queues or long waits to get your job done. I beleive corruption could be tackled once each and every common citizen taken an oath that whatever it may take, I am not paying a single damn dime to get my job done. It would take some strong will power and patience on each of us but would reap tangible benefits in the long run (i hope!).
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