New Delhi: After the findings of the survey carried out by Centre for Media Studies (CMS) and Transparency International showed a family in the national capital, Delhi had to pay an average of Rs 2,486 as bribes in the past year, totaling Rs 239.26 crore across 15 public services and that corruption was the highest in the Delhi Police, Delhi CM Kejriwal trained his guns on PM Modi. In a series of tweets, he described it as “shocking” and said it was a “scathing attack on Modiji’s capabilities (and) intentions”.
Kejriwal questioned Modi’s ability to control corruption and promised to set things rights in Delhi Police within a year if control of the force was shifted from the Union home ministry to the Delhi government.
“Modiji, give up your stubbornness now and work with us. Give control of the ACB (Anti-Corruption Bureau) and police to the Delhi government. We will show you by making things right in one year,” Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi.
He pointed out that the survey had shown that corruption had declined in departments under the Delhi government. This proved the Aam Aadmi Party government’s “neeyat n admn capability”, he tweeted.
The Corruption Study 2015 on Perception and Experience with Public Services in Delhi listed the transport department, which issues driving licenses, and the municipal corporation department, which issues ‘tehbazari’ permits for selling products on pavements and roads, as the most corrupt after the police.
The study showed nearly 30% of Delhi’s households paid bribes during the past year to avail of public services.
Another key finding was that more than a third of households felt the level of corruption in public services had “remained same” during the past one year.
“This latest report focuses on 15 public services in Delhi governed by the Union government, state government and the three municipal corporations,” CMS director general PN Vasanti said on Monday.
CSM chairman N Bhaskara Rao said, “The only significant perception is of decrease (45%) in corruption in state government-run services. Consistently, around 20% households felt corruption had increased in the last one year in public services under the three different governments.
“This is a significant finding as there have been claims in the last one year of decline in corruption, especially by the state government of Delhi.”
The survey covered 1,501 households representing different socio-economic strata across nine districts of Delhi. It was conducted between the third week of July and the first week of August.
Civic bodies topped in terms of bribes, with Rs 45,000 as the highest amount paid to get building plans sanctioned by the MCD. The lowest amount – Rs 20 – was paid “to replace LPG gas pipes”.
The percentage of people who could not avail of a particular service was relatively high — around 8% seeking driving licenses were denied services because they could not pay bribes, 6% were denied services in case of building plans and 5% in case of Delhi Police.
