This is a feather in the cap that the police will definitely want to dust away: the department was declared the “most corrupt” for the second consecutive year.

According to the figures available with the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) tabulated till June this year, 66 policemen were caught red-handed while accepting bribe. The revenue department followed with 46 cases registered against its employees, whereas the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) stood third with cases registered against its 18 employees.

“We are taking serious note of the complaints we receive,” said Niket Kaushik, additional police commissioner, ACB. “But our job is not to interpret the statistics and pass judgments about departments,” he added.

In 2008, 119 policemen were arrested in 93 cases registered followed by employees from the revenue department and civic bodies.

Most of those arrested on charges of corruption from the police department were class III employees. A total 60 policemen of class III (below sub-inspector), two of class II (assistant police inspector) and four of class I (above police inspector) were caught red-handed while accepting bribe last year.

“Class III employees generally come in direct contact with common man. When they demand money, the victim makes complaints after which we trap them,” observed a police officer of ACB.

The officer said that one should not conclude that corruption is more in police department.

Of the 46 revenue department employees arrested on corruption charges, one was of class IV, 38 were class III, two class II and five were class I officers.

Neta’s of India – The most corrupt lot!

Transparency International recently released the Global corruption barometer for 2009 – it reveals that our Indian Neta’s for whom we cast our all important votes are the MOST corrupt lot, even more than Police and law officials !

Here are some of the findings of the survey

58% of the respondents in India singled out politicians as the most corrupt individuals.
13% of the respondents rated government officials as the second most corrupt.
10% of the respondents felt that Parliament and other law making bodies are corrupt.
9% of the respondents felt that the private sector – which was included in the survey for the first time – are corrupt.
Media and judiciary are corrupt in the view of 8% and 3% respondents respectively.
45% of people surveyed in India said the government is ineffective in addressing corruption.
I actually do not understand the last finding “45% of people surveyed in India said the government is ineffective in addressing corruption”.

Tell me, if the people who run the government are the most corrupt, then how in the hell can they do anything about corruption!!

Here is another interesting finding of the survey- Poorest families continue to be punished by petty bribe demands. Across the board, low-income people were more likely to be met with bribe demands than high-income ones.
http://trak.in/tags/business/2009/06/04/india…

India 5th most corrupt Asian economy: Survey

The Philippines is perceived as Asia’s most corrupt, while India as fifth corrupt economy by foreign businessmen according to a survey that also found countries were failing properly to tackle corruption.

Singapore (1.20) and Hong Kong (1.87) were seen as the cleanest economies, among the 13 Asian economies while China, Indonesia and Vietnam posted improvements, the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) said on Tuesday in a summary made available to AFP.

In a grading system with zero as the best possible score and 10 the worst. The Phillipines got 9.40, worsening sharply from its grade of 7.8 last year. India, though improved its score from 6.76 last year to 6.67 this year, was in the fifth in the ranking among 13 Asian economies.

PERC said the Indian government must accelerate reforms, warning that corruption can limit companies’ expansion plans.
http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.ph…