NGO meet to discuss strategies to combat corruption
30 Aug, 2012Nandini Voice For the Deprived , a Chennai based NGO organised a brain storming meeting at Adyar in Chennai on 25th August, 2012 to discuss about the strategies to combat corruption in the country. The meeting was attended by large number of concerned citizens including lawyers, professors, engineers, retired government officials, bank officials, differently abled persons and anti - corruption activists and general public from city and rural areas as well as representatives from “Transparency International” and “India Against Corruption”.
The discussions were initiated by Mr.S.M. Arasu, General Secretary, Anti Corruption Movement and coordinated by N.S.Venkataraman, Trustee, Nandini Voice for the Deprived. The meeting lasted for three hours and thirty minutes.
Highlights of the proceedings of the meeting are given below:
- It was observed that Anna Hazare gave great fillip to the anti corruption movement in India , but now the movement seems to have lost its sense of direction, as Anna Hazare has disbanded his team. Now, the anti corruption movement in India is back to square one.
- There was lively debate as to whether the fight against corruption should be initiated at the top level of the government or should it start from the bottom. The consensus view was that without reforming the people, reforming the political class would not be possible. The standards of the political leadership of the government and the bureaucracy is a direct reflection on the attitude of the large section of people towards the prevalence of corruption in the country, which appears to be one of indifference or self-centered attitude in many cases. It was pointed out that in some countries the law states that the giver of the bribe would be more guilty than the taker of the bribe and punished severely, which is not so in India.
- The representative of the Transparency International read the corrupt rating of countries in the world and said India has slided down from around 100 to 183 now.
- A member of the India Against Corruption Movement said that Lok Ayukta should be created in all states immediately and its decision must be respected by the government and the people.
- It was also pointed out that of late, unholy alliance between some NGOs and government officials are increasingly seen in implementation of the welfare measures of the government in rural areas.
- It was stressed that the anti-corruption activists should go to the rural areas and villages and create confidence in the minds of the citizens about the feasibility of fighting against corruption and provide them the necessary support.
The meeting concluded that there must be resistance for corruption at individual level which call for sacrifices for the sake of the nation. This attitude of resistance at individual level would spread as chain reaction and create fear in the minds of the corrupt persons whether in the government or in the private sector or NGOs.