9 Ideas for elimination of corruption and increasing efficiency

9 Ideas for elimination of corruption and increasing efficiency

 Even after 70 years of Independence, more than 20 crore Indians are living below poverty line ( BPL). The kind of abject poverty that poor of our country are facing is even worse than sub-Sahara African countries. The condition of those who are above poverty line is not very good either. Isn’t it shameful for us?  Not that efforts are not being made, but corruption has punctured all the efforts.

 Government as well as we have to take many honest steps to tackle problem of corruption. I have managed to put across some ideas:

 1. There are hundreds of Government policies going on like Skill India, Jan Dhan Yojana, Mudra Yojna, MNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna,UDAY,PAHAL, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Start up India, Digital India, NRHM, Sarv Shikha Abhiyan, Namami Gange, Atal pension Yojna, Mid-day meal etc. First of all, most of citizen doesn't know if such schemes exist. If some of us  have heard about such schemes, then we don’t know how to take advantage of these schemes. Therefore lets make people aware of their rights. Government must use print/electronic/digital media to spread awareness level (currently it’s happening but in bits & pieces) . RTI is an excellent medium of curbing corruption. How many of us utilize RTI? Word of mouth publicity is cheapest and most effective. For getting word of mouth publicity, WOW factor must be there in the scheme. For example currently maximum return (9.2% ROI) is available in “Beti Bacho Beti Padhao scheme”. We Indians love boosting ourselves by showing our knowledge, let us share the knowledge about this scheme. Awareness will lead to push the system for better facilities.

 2. Government must start taking people’s feedback more extensively. Recently Indian Railway has started taking telephonic feedback about its facilities. This is excellent initiative to know real time problem. Similarly I would request Government to implement the feedback system for all Government related services like feedback of Govt hospital facilities, Govt School’s education quality, RTO related services, feedback about municipal corporation, electricity department, water supply, police department etc. This will give a fair idea of systemic inefficiencies. The fear of adverse feedback will keep Government servants on their toes.

 3. How many times do we ask for receipt of our purchase from shopkeeper? Currently people don’t know importance of taking purchase receipt. Culture of taking receipt can help our country to curb  tax avoidance by businessmen. How we can develop this culture? Two things are required, 1st is awareness of importance of receipt and 2nd is rewarding people who take receipt. Recently Delhi Govt has started unique scheme. In the scheme, consumer only needs to upload the receipt through mobile application and then in lucky draw he can get 5 times refund. Why can’t similar ideas be rolled across India?

 4. Getting work done by Government department is  herculean task. Many times, delay is deliberately done by Government servants as tactics to take bribe. Sitting on the file is big disease in our country, this is source of corruption and also delays the progress of country. Why can’t the Government start using Barcode technology to know the status of file and exact time taken at each stage of file clearance?


 5. Any idea what your Member of Parliament is doing? You will fail to recollect his top 5 contribution in last 2-3 years.  They represent on an average 30 Lac population. There are thousands of problem on which they are supposed to work. You may have some clue of his work through his social media presence or some big achievements but what about rest of things. How a common man will come to know contribution of his MP? Just imagine, he might be leading a delegation of MSMEs to finance ministry, he might have given representation to pollution department about growing river pollution complaints, and he might be reviewing implementation of various Govt schemes with District Collector. He might be listening complaints of his citizen inconvenience and apathy of Govt departments.  These are the things which are not covered in media. Don’t you think there should be individual website to track each and every action of MP where he should submit list of issues, his proposals, action and his achievements in excel format? Is there any sort of Key Result Areas ( KRA) defined for MPs? Let him submit plan vs actual or in other words plan vs status. Currently politicians do divert the attention of people through raising non issues. Let’s don’t allow them to divert attention. If they know that public is closely monitoring his working then MPs would have to pay deeper attention on their working style.



6. Corruption is nothing but taking advantage of systemic loopholes. Today in running train, TTE gives confirm birth to general ticket holder by taking bribe while RAC/Waitlisted passengers in same bogie doesn't get. Just imagine if there is digital tracking i.e TTE has to update PNR number of passenger in the portable device whom he has given seat, the central control room will get to know that TTE has bypassed 4 RAC/Waitlisted passengers and given seat to unreserved ticket holder. TTE would not like to lose his job hence he would not bypass the system (Because he would be caught). Similarly my sincere advice to Govt is to plug loopholes like IT exemption to farmers, incentive to exporters where Govt servant does compliance audit (why to give opportunity to rich exporter to bribe Govt Babus for undue favour?)




7. Awareness among common people about of Government welfare fund utilization will help to curb corruption immensely. Currently the unholy nexus converts Kuccha road of village into paved road on the paper and money is distributed among all stakeholders (Govt Servant, Village Sarpanch , local politicians and even with cross checking Govt auditors). Villagers doesn't know this entire thing hence don’t question or raise voice. Imagine if after completion of any development work there would be feedback SMS/Call to all residents of that village and same would be updated on the website, people would come to know that their village road is still Kuccha while as per Govt record it’s paved. People will come to know about such large scale corruption has happened and will question Sarpanch and stage protest.




8.There is CIBIL to know loan repayment score i.e credit worthiness. If a person defaults any loan repayment, in future he won’t be given loan by other banks. Loan taker afraid that in case of any default his name will reflect in CIBIL hence ensures smooth repayment history. This is beauty of seamless flow of information. Similarly let Govt  Babu’s honesty score should be freely available on the website. Any corruption case/record should reduce his score.



9. Do you know what are achievements of “Bal Sudhar Grih”, agriculture extension education office, basic Shikha Adhikari office, soil testing lab, housing board, pollution board, employment office, police department, jal board, food & supplies department etc ?. I bet you don’t know. Isn’t important that we must know what they are doing and with what efficiency? After all they are running on our taxes. They must be accountable to public. Let them inform their monthly/quarterly/yearly achievements. Let them come out with plan vs actual and success measurement. Let’s make them to work and put them on toes.

  

It’s not that these are easy to implement. Let’s give honest try. Transparency, accountability, use of IT, awareness and desire to achieve will help us to get our endeavor.

 “Jai Hind”

Manoj Tripathi

(Views are personal )