Curbing graft: Maharashtra govt wants its babus to do 'chintan' on corruption

“Manage expenses within your salary” is the message being sought to be sent out to the bureaucracy by a federation of 70 different state government employee unions in Maharashtra, reported The Times of India  on Tuesday. The state government too has given its approval, at least officially, and has allowed the unions to carry out counselling sessions during work hours to dissuade them from corruption.

Interestingly, the federation has borrowed the term used by the Congress party for its brainstorming sessions- “Chintan Shivir”- as the title for the initiative.

As part of the programme, babus at all levels will occasionally have probity lessons during the lunch hour, in which they will be encouraged to “give up bad, elements, focus on positive goals and help build the image of the bureaucracy as well as the government.”

The move has been initiated by the state gazetted officers’ federation, an umbrella body of 70 state government employee unions, and will rope in anti-corruption activists Anna Hazare, as well as well-known social workers Prakash Amte and Abhay Bang.

Attempts have been made earlier as well to encourage government servants to work honestly. In 2013, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) introduced a paper on “ethics, integrity and aptitude.”

Sample questions include-

 “What do you understand by Ethical Human Conduct?”  

“Which great Indian personality has inspired you the most as a role model and how have you been able to benefit in your life from such an inspiration?”

However, the extent to which such an academic exercise in moral theory would translate into practice is anybody’s guess.

In starting an initiative to counsel government servants on probity, the government appears to have the objective of improving its public image in mind. Civil society organization Transparency International last year said that “opaque public institutions, lack of protection for anti-corruption and widespread government interference in the work of anti-corruption watchdogs” were the major reasons for endemic corruption in South Asia. According to a survey by Global Corruption Barometer 2013 which was quoted by the organization, perceptions about corruption in India are worse than all other South Asian countries with the exception of Pakistan.

Maharashtra has seen a number of corruption scandals recently, including the awarding contracts by the women and child development department, irrigation contracts and the Adarsh housing society.