Good news! This survey says, India gets less corrupt day by day

New Delhi: There has been a "definite decline" in both perception and experience of citizens about corruption in public services between 2005 and 2017, according to a study by CMS- India Corruption Study 2017, conducted by New Delhi based think tank Centre for Media Studies (CMS). "While 73 per cent of the households had perceived increase in corruption level in public services in 2005, only 43 per cent of the households in 2017 opined that the level of corruption in public services has increased during the last one year prior to the survey," the study report claims.

It further said that total amount paid by households across 20 states and 10 public services as bribe, is estimated to be Rs 6,350 crore (63,500 million) in 2017 as against Rs 20,500 crore in 2005. "N Vittal, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, in his foreword mentioned that this year’s CMS report is unique as it brings out the trend that deserve to be taken note further by the academics of the country.

The report brings out that bribe that citizen has to pay has come down more specifically in the last three years, and particularly in the case of public services which have adopted newer interactive ICT technologies," a CMS source said. Some of the key findings of the survey dish out some interesting features.

They include: among households experiencing corruption in public services during last one year was higher in Karnataka (77 pc) followed by Andhra Pradesh (74 pc), Tamil Nadu (68 pc), Maharashtra (57 pc, J&K (44 pc) and Punjab (42 pc). Curiously again, in 2005 round, the survey says percentage of households reporting so were more in Bihar (74 pc), J&K (69 pc), Odisha (60 pc), Rajasthan (59 pc) and Tamil Nadu (59 pc). "In most of the states, the more often paid bribe amount ranges between Rs 100-500, however, as low as Rs 10 and as high as Rs 50,000 were also paid by households in a year for availing one or the other public service," the survey report says.

Further the study claims that out of 20 states covered in CMS-ICS 2017, the three lesser corrupt states in terms of households ‘experiencing corruption in public services’ are Himachal Pradesh (3 pc) followed by Kerala (4 pc) and Chhattisgarh (13 pc). In contrast, in 2005, the three lesser corrupt states were Kerala (35 pc), Maharashtra (39 pc) and Gujarat (43 pc). Among public services, households reported experiencing corruption was relatively higher in Police (34 pc) followed by Land/Housing (24 pc), Judicial services (18 pc) and Tax (15 pc) and PDS (12 pc). (UNI)