‘Corruption becoming all pervasive’

Our Correspondent KOHIMA, OCTOBER 26 “Corruption has entered into every single aspect of our lives becoming all pervasive, it is growing to worrying proportions and there is barely any sphere of social, political, economic and even religious activity that is free from graft, fraud and corruption of some kind,” says KT Sukhalu, Vigilance Commissioner Nagaland. The official said this while delivering the keynote address at a literary event organized by the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) as a kick-off programme to the Vigilance Awareness Week 2015 on Monday at the State Academy Hall, Kohima. Sukhalu described corruption as “a social cancer in public life”, which did not happen overnight but developed over the years and has now become an evil which the people are made to live with, he lamented. He disclosed that in Nagaland, a total number of 66 cases were under investigation by the commission during the period from October 2014 to October 2015, of which 45 are preliminary enquiry and 21 regular cases. The official informed that the commission has finalized 24 cases whereby the service of 4 employees were terminated, 13 officials given administrative warning/censure and 7 were convicted/penalized. He said a sum of Rs.65,000 fine was imposed and Rs.13,46,656 had been recovered during the period. The department is also said to have submitted 20 cases of departmental proceedings, chargesheet and final report to the court for its verdict. Sukhalu pointed out that lack of transparency, morality, accountability, consistency and institutional weakness provide for a fertile ground for the growth of corruption in the society. “The most worrisome trend is that most people accept it as an irritating but unavoidable way of life. Rather than fight a wrong, they prefer to follow the norm,” he asserted candidly and added that such passive behaviour promotes the increasing growth of the social menace. Stating that good governance ensures that public leaders, bureaucrats and officials are answerable to the citizens, he emphasized that government functions should be transparent with file and official record open for public scrutiny, except for the matters regarding national security. He also stressed the need for a proactive participation and involvement of citizens so that the government provides a clean and efficient government. He feels that the youth today can also play a huge role and stand up to the authorities who perpetuate corruption and actually uproot the very weed of the malady. Meanwhile, the vigilance official said the department of IT&C had, in compliance with the directive of the Ministry of IT, notified all the departments to migrate to the National Standard for eProcurement & eTendering. He said 25 state departments were identified, out of which 19 submitted written consent, and training had been imparted for 16 departments, but till now only 5 departments are implementing the system. Towards this end, he maintained that all the departments should seriously utilize IT & C tools for greater transparency, accountability, efficiency and good governance. Pointing to reports of various studies, he said corruption slows the growth of economy, and underscored the need to bring out positive reforms to rid the state of the evil called corruption so that the people can work together for good governance and development of Nagaland. The official also administered the vigilance pledge on the occasion. A debate competition on the theme of the week-long event ‘Preventive Vigilance as a Tool for Good Governance’ was held for college students where 10 colleges participated, with five for the motion and five against. Both benches acknowledged that corruption is widespread and deeply rooted in the Naga society today. While the debaters on the motion maintained that preventive vigilance is needed to check and combat corruption, the opposition bench strongly argued that it is only an ideology and with corruption already eating away the society, a cure rather than preventive measures, to completely root out the menace is needed. Eangchi Konyak of Kohima College (for the motion) won the debate competition while Jeangei P Konyak of Japfü Christian College Kigwema and Taduiwangbe Nriame of Mountain View College Kohima (against the motion) were adjudged second, and Krosu Hiesu of Sazolie College Jotsoma came third. The judges of the competition were senior SP Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Police K Shiwoto Wotsa, ADC Kohima Lithrongla Tongpi and SDPO Kohima Atu Zumvu. Earlier, the messages of the Governor and the Chief Minister were read out by additional SP Oponlumi Humtsoe and Dy SP Vikono Peseyie. The programme was chaired by the Director & DIGP SVC, I Meyionen.