State records 100 pc pendency in corruption cases: Report
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, July 24 2022:
Even though the state occupied
the top rank in the recently published
India Innovation Index 2021, the same
report also shows 100 per cent pendency in corruption cases and low
chargesheet rate in the state.
Manipur led the 'North East and
Hilly States' category in the index
released by NITI Aayog vice-chairman
Suman Bery on July 21.
Prepared by NITI Aayog and the
Institute for Competitiveness, the India
Innovation Index is a comprehensive
tool for the evaluation and development of the country's innovation
ecosystem.
It ranks the states and the
union territories on their innovation
performance to build healthy competition amongst them and highlights
the scope of innovation analysis in the
country by drawing on the framework
of the Global Innovation Index through
66 indicators, which are distributed
across 16 sub-pillars, which, in turn,
form seven key pillars.
Safety and Legal Environment is
another important pillar, which is
further divided into two sub-pillars
� safety and security environment,
and legal regulatory environment.
The national average for the pillar was
calculated to be 31.84, with 21 states/
UTs performing below the national
average.
In the North Eastern and Hilly
states category, Manipur is a relatively
better performer, with a score of 72.13
as it has consistently performed well
in all 5 indicators relating to safety and
security environment.
The sub-pillar
focuses on the safety and security
aspects of a state, based on various
factors, including crime rate, cyber
and social media monitoring, police
personnel per lakh population and
so on.
Manipur has the highest number
of cybercrime police stations per
lakh population at 0.35, and the
third-highest number of police personnel per lakh at 942.93, just below
Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar
Islands.
Manipur has also registered
a low rate of cognizable crimes per
lakh population, just below Dadra
and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu,
and Nagaland as per the NCRB data.
Legal Regulatory Environment
sub-pillar has three indicators: Pendency of court cases, Chargesheet rate,
and Percentage of pending corruption
cases.
It is an important measure to
analyse the legal regulatory framework
in a state, with respect to timely and
efficient redressal and low pendency
of court cases.
The pendency of court
cases is lowest in Haryana and highest
in Puducherry.
In case of chargesheet rate, the percentage of the chargesheets filed out
of the total number of cases is highest
on Gujarat and Kerala with 97.1 per
cent and 94.9 per cent respectively,
and lowest in Meghalaya and Manipur
with 18.1 per cent and 18.5 per cent
respectively.
The backlog in corruption
cases is calculated in the pendency
percentage indicator.
Tripura, and
Lakshadweep states have zero backlog
corruption cases against 100 per cent
backlog in Manipur, Sikkim, Dadra
and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu,
Bihar Ladakh and West Bengal.
In fact,
all the states except for Puducherry,
Tripura and Lakshadweep have over 85
per cent backlog reflecting a grim state
of corruption cases pending across the
courtrooms in the country.
There is a wide disparity in the
performance of the states.
In this
pillar, the top performers are all the
Northeast and Hilly States, and Union
Territories and City States.
This does
not necessarily mean a safer and legally resilient environment in the
top-performing states.
For example, a lower rate of
offences under IT/IP acts can
also be associated with inadequate reporting of such cases.
So, it becomes necessary to
carefully analyse each indicator to better understand the
safety and legal environment
in a limited frame.
Irrespective of the state's
scores on the pillar, it is necessary to improve a region's
safety aspect.
This could be
achieved by introducing cyber
and social media monitoring
cells to address cybercrimes.
Equally important is a pertinent legal, regulatory environment to clear the backlog of corruption and other
court cases, and improve the
chargesheet rate.
Through a
strong safety and legal environment, the state will attract investment and promote
growth by efficiently utilising
the innovation landscape in
the region, the report stated.