Bribery accused receive sentence only after 20 years; Corruption must be punished immediately

The bureaucratic system in India is very dominant. It is also a section that has been hit by the disease of corruption the most since independence. Bureaucracy still prioritizes how not to get anything done. Due to the abundance of rules, they can easily accomplish this as well. Bureaucrats are the ones who are responsible for checking the ins and outs of the laws made by the people's representatives and giving permission for each thing. Bureaucracy can block any initiative and delay it by imposing unnecessary conditions while going through the tangles of laws. Bribery emerges as an easy way to overcome this. By the passage of time, bribery became common even for lawful matters!

Government servants are now getting a decent amount as salary. However, ours is also a country with officials who live on bribes without touching their salaries. Although there are many investigative mechanisms and vigilance departments in place to prevent bribery, there is generally no perception that the rate and scope of bribery is decreasing, rather than increasing. The main reason for this increase is that the majority of those forced to pay bribes are unwilling to file a complaint against it. This attitude of people is exploited by corrupt officials. Corruption is becoming a perennial thing as the political sector, which is bound to control officials, is not free from corruption. Unfortunately, there is no current practice of immediately giving severe punishment to officers who are caught for corruption. It is a relief to the public that corrupt officials are being punished at least occasionally despite all this.

The unemployment benefits provided by the government are very small. One should be incredibly shameless to commit fraud even there. Such a case happened in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation in the financial year 2005-2006. The case is related to an irregularity in the distribution of unemployment wages to the youth and embezzlement of Rs.15.45 lakhs. Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Court has punished Accounts Section Clerk PL Jeevan and Health Section Clerk Sadashivan Nair who were found guilty in the case registered by Thiruvananthapuram Vigilance Special Investigation Unit. Both were sentenced to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine. Even though it has been nearly twenty years since the irregularity was discovered, both of them getting sentenced is enough to serve as a lesson to other corrupt people. We need a system where once someone has been caught for corruption the investigations and trials can be completed within two years and the accused can be sentenced. This disease can be curbed to a great extent if there is a sense that corruption will be caught and punished immediately.