'Corruption is widespread in state'
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, September 02 2012:
On the second day of the seminar being conducted by Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) on 'Corruption', Moirangthem Amarjeet Singh, Asst Prof.School of Social Science, NIAS, Bangalore, has observed that corruption is a clandestine activity between a corrupt and a corruptor.
Amarjeet said that corruption is a perception among the people and hence difficult to measure.
It is not a new phenomenon and it plagued the world ever since the emergence of organized form of government.
It is a serious impediment to effective and efficient delivery of public service.
The 'prevailing deep-rooted' corruption in Manipur is the aftermath of the political instability during 1960s, which was marked with political defection, infighting among leaders, crumbling down of coalition governments, failure of opposition parties in highlighting the issues facing the problem of the masses, etc.
In the state, corruption became rampant phenomenon post statehood, he said.
Pointing out that low compensation for government employees, weak governance, emergence of insurgency, failure of institutions, increasing living standard, scarcity of resources, inflation, underdevelopment are some of the important factors of causing corruption and anti-government movement in the state, he that that if we want to curb corruption among the lower rung of government official proper compensation has to be given.
Taking the reference of Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, where an anti-corruption Act called Guarantee of Service to Citizen Act is in force, Amarjeet stressed on the need for a new legislation to counter corruption, inefficiency and lack of transparency in the conduct of the government affairs.
Apart from CSOs monitor paying of bribes, media also need to stay alert to expose corruption, he added.
Participating in the seminar, another resource person, Dr Chinglen Maishnam, Asst.
Prof.Department of Economics, Manipur University said that we could never curb corruption with theories.
Corruption would only increase if we don't fight against dirty politics and principles of neo-liberalism.
Highlighting the necessity of a total reformation to curb corruption, Dr Ch Bheigachandra, Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, DM College of Arts said that if we want to do away with the menace, we should first of all rectify the existing education system in the society.