Corruption the Cancer…

I like this term – frequently used by Arun Shourie. I was reading some of his articles published in the past and realised how systemic is corruption, that even people like him in power are unable to build a coalition to root it out..

I call this a systemic problem as I realise that no amount of good intentions or my simplified suggestion of improving the salary levels and hi-tech monitoring is going to solve it. Its a problem akin to famines, no matter how much food you could bring in India in those days, it didn’t solve the problem. But only when you brought in the structural changes did the famines vanish from Bengal.

So what are the fundamental problems and how to solve them. Like absence of rains and use of unscientific techniques caused famines… demand of food was more and less could be produced, i think corruption is caused by a big demand supply gap of governance in the form of schools, hospitals, police, prosecution, vigilance, and a lack of checkpoints – you always know the big fish will be the most corrupt, you create special deptt. to make sure they dont get out of the net.

I think the way to go about it is to try and remove the capacity issues. Staff government offices adequately – simply making the bureaucratic control reduntant and allowing market forces to come in, but regulated to ensure market functions properly. My wishlist is to increase number of districts as per population and local needs, use technology to make governance more open – involve people in scrutiny along with the vigilance department, make the decision making procedure less hierarchial – decentralise authority, focus on core issues of governance, economy and security and leave rest to well qualified professionals, and ofcourse pay good salary.