Corruption is a common enough practice in Government departments in Uttar Pradesh. From PWD to irrigation to agriculture to industries, it determines the rules of the game. The demonetisation decision has come as a major jolt to the graft industry
The telephone ring broke the reverie of MK Narain (name changed), who was in the middle of his meditation session. He looked at the clock; it was 9.45pm. The caller was his colleague who broke the news about the demonetisation of high value currency notes in India on November 8. Narain was shocked.
“For the first few minutes I could not understand what my friend had said. I switched on the TV set and saw news channels showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi making the declaration. I heard him saying Rs500 and Rs1,000 will cease to be legal tenders from mid-night”, he said.
Narain had stashed over Rs48 lakh in a steel trunk. The bribe money, which he had painfully collected over the last few years, was in Rs1,000 and Rs500 denominations. The box was kept in his bedroom with a small mattress over it and was used as a settee. The Prime Minister’s announcement meant that in one stroke, the money was valueless.
“I made some calls to my colleagues and could sense desperation in their voices. I knew they too have bribe money with them but no one was saying anything about this. I was confused on what to do with this money. I thought for a minute if I could lose it all”, he said.
Narain works as a senior engineer with the Public Works Department in Uttar Pradesh. The department oversee the construction of highways and inter-linking roads and has an annual budget of over Rs27,000 crore. Bribes are common in this department. Money changes hand at every process of a project, which starts from floating the tender to passing expenditure bills after completion of the project. The money is allegedly shared from the Minister down to the engineers, and the cut even goes further down to the peon who carries files from one section to another. The engineers have a pre-decided commission which they get without asking, every month. But some ingenious officers ask for bribes from contractors who construct roads or suppliers who supply cements, iron or other building material required from time to time for the project.
“Bribe is not a taboo in Government job. Particularly when you are working in Public Works Department money comes to you naturally. You do not have to ask for it … it just comes”, said Narain, days after he was struck with the demonetisation bolt.
He did not reveal what he had done with the black money but he looked composed. Sitting in his well-decorated house in the up-market locality of Indira Nagar, he said his wife knew that he took bribe. In a party, when you introduce yourself to the guests as an engineer in the PWD, their facial expression changes .I am used to this expression”, he said, taking a long sip of his drink as he adjusted the chandelier light with the remote.
“What I get as bribe is nothing when compared to what others take. look at my house and compare it with houses of other officers of my rank. They live in palatial homes. I have a small hatchback car while others roam around in sedans and SUVs. Does not our senior notice this”, he asks in mock desperation. “I only take commission which is fixed per project. Others open their mouth and ask for bribe, which I cannot do.”
“Taking this extra money as commission is compulsion too. Twice, I have myself paid bribe to the Minister after I was transferred out of lucknow. I literally bought my posting in lucknow. I was asked to pay a certain amount as bribe and I paid that”, he said, refusing to divulge the amount and the Minister who took the bribe. “Then on every festive season, you have to offer costly gifts to all seniors and Ministers. One needs to keep them happy. On this Diwali, I gifted a Rado wrist-watch to one of my senior’s son. Do you know how much it costsIJ That officer said, Rolex is better company!” he said.
He again took a long sip of his drink and said, “Do you expect I will give gift to them from my salary. No, never. I take bribes because I have to survive and be competitive in this world.”
The corruption is not limited to the PWD or construction divisions only. A serving bureaucrat spilled the beans when, on September 4, Ashok Kumar, Secretary in National Integration Department, said he could not become a District Magistrate earlier because he did not have Rs70 lakh to pay a bribe.
“Only those who have the capacity to pay a bribe of Rs70 lakh are posted as District Magistrates. I did not have Rs70 lakh, otherwise I would have also become one”, he told the media in Basti, around 200km south-east of lucknow. He did not reveal as who takes such bribes and how the figure of Rs70 lakh had been arrived at. Kumar was suspended immediately after he gave this explosive statement.
The District Magistrate’s position is the topmost administrative post in a district. The District Magistrate enjoys huge discretionary power and has tremendous freedom to spend Government money. In 2014, an RTI application revealed that the former District Magistrate of lucknow, Anurag Yadav, had spent over one crore rupees on fuel and electricity bills in a single year. The Government said in response to the RTI application that he had paid Rs75.10 lakh as the electricity bill of his office and residence in 2012-13.
These expenses were five to 15 times higher than what was spent by his predecessor and also successor, Sanjay Sharma, the RTI activist said.
SP Singh, a retired bureaucrat, said bureaucrats and officers were minting money because there has never been thefear of law. They know that if they are caught, they will wriggle out of the situation by paying even more bribes. “The tendency to take bribes stems from a desire to have the best in life. The bureaucrats are in regular touch with corporate people and try to ape them. For this, they need money. Though the officers get a good salary, it is not enough to match that of the corporate honchos. The lure of lucre is so intense they end up taking bribe” Singh remarked.
Singh, who retired in December 2015, after over 30 years of service in India’s elite IAS, said the nexus between politicians and bureaucrats has cemented the rot of corruption in the Government’s working. “A bureaucrat helps an illiterate politician make money by bending rules. Acting as a conduit, he ends up thinking: If a Minister can make money why cannot IIJ”
“In India, there is no check and balance in Government working. Earlier, the political system used to keep an eye on bureaucrats, who in turn were role model for their subordinates. Now, politicians take bribes, bureaucrats take bribes and subordinater officers too take bribes. The rot is deep”, he said.
(The writer is Bureau Chief, lucknow edition, of The Pioneer)