CHENNAI:
Uttar Pradesh was perceived as the most corrupt state in the country followed by
Punjab and
Tamil Nadu in
Transparency International’s India Corruption
Survey 2018 conducted in 15 states and Union territories. Most of the respondents said they had to
bribe officials for property registration and in the energy, transport and tax offices.
In Uttar Pradesh, 59% of the residents who participated in the survey admitted to paying bribes to get their work done; out of which 21% paid bribes (directly or indirectly) several times and 38% paid bribes (directly or indirectly) once or twice. In Punjab 56% of those surveyed admitted to paying bribes and in Tamil Nadu this percentage was 52%. In Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, most bribes were paid in registration offices and in Punjab, the police were bribed the most.
No survey was conducted in the north-east, Sikkim, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh. “The national survey was conducted across 215 districts,” Akshay Gupta of Transparency International told TOI.
Computerisation of offices has not really helped check corruption. Respondents said the government offices where they paid bribes were computerised but had no CCTV. The survey found that bribes paid to the police had come down in the last year but bribes paid to officials in registration offices had increased. “In 2017, 30% paid bribes to the police, 27% to municipalities and 27% for property registration. This year, 25% paid bribes to police, 18% to municipalities and 30% for property registration,” said the survey.
Nearly 22% of the respondents said that they paid bribes as only then their work was done and 36% said they paid bribes to speed up their work. Almost half of those surveyed said the local or state government did not take any step to prevent corruption and 34% said though some steps were taken, they had not prevented corruption.