Corruption has eaten its way so deep in the State that it is next to impossible for the common people to have their works done without bribing the officers concerned. Instances galore are coming to the fore as the bribe-seeking officers are being trapped by the Vigilance Department officers. Things are really alarming with as many as 167 Government officials having been arrested so far on the charges of demanding bribes from the common people in lieu of their works done. Most of these cases are from the plain districts like Haridwar, Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar.
The Vigilance Department revealed through a report that they had laid 164 traps and 167 Government officials have been caught red-handed over the past 15 years since Uttarakhand came up. Moreover, there are 43 gazetted officers among those arrested tagged with bribery charges. On three occasions in 2009, 2010 and 2013, two Government officers were caught together by the Vigilance Department and were later arrested on bribery charges. The number of gazetted officers caught thus comprise around one third of the lower rung officials.
However, in the first three years since the State was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, just three traps were laid and three Government employees were caught on the charge of accepting bribe. With the awareness rising by the Department among the people, the number of traps increased. The Department had laid 29 and 25 traps in 2009 and 2010 respectively and 30 and 26 Government employees were arrested on the same charges.
Till October, 2015, the Vigilance Department had laid 18 traps and 18 Government officials were arrested on the same charges, said an official. While lauding the pro-active Vigilance Department for nailing the corrupt officials, observers say that no case of any big fish falling in the net occasions surprise.
“Many of the officials holding exalted posts in the bureaucratic hierarchy are neck deep in corruption. The nature of corruption they are indulging in are, however, different from bribe-taking as their palms are too big to be greased by the amounts of normal bribery. But they are eluding the eagle-eyed vigilance of the department,” said one of them.
Another observer said that corruption like anything runs top bottom. “So it is not possible for those occupying the lower rungs of the administration to demand bribery unless their seniors are conniving with them or getting share of the pie,” he said.
Ironically, the common people for the welfare of whom strings of schemes the Centre and the state governments have launched and are launching are being forced to shell out bribe amounts by way of humoring the officials concerned to avail themselves of such schemes.