Observing that the “cancer” of corruption has corroded every organ of public life, Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar on Monday advocated bringing strong mechanisms like public grievance redressal system and citizen’s charter to stem the menace.
“The cancer of corruption has corroded every organ of public life. This has resulted in rising anger against corruption and people’s level of tolerance for corruption is declining,” he said.
Noting that petty corruption was a major cause of anger and frustration among people, Kumar sought strong mechanisms to curb it.
“Much of public anger and frustration can be attributed to the prevalence of petty form of corruption, especially in the delivery of basic public services”.
“Such corruption has a more serious and direct impact on the citizens especially the poor and weak, as it denies them access to development. It renders the socio-economic development programmes of the government ineffective”.
“Petty corruption can be best addressed through governance reforms like simplification of procedures, ease of access and strong grievance redressal mechanisms. E-governance is effective in reducing the gatekeeper role of public functionaries and making the inter-mediaries powerless,” he said at the 4th anniversary celebrations of the Bangalore Chapter of the Vigilance Study Circle.