BHUBANESWAR: The delivery date of a "strong Lokpal Bill" is still months away, but Orissa is ecstatic that the stone laid by Anna Hazare could nail the corrupt in the state sooner than later. The jubilation on Saturday evening marked after Parliament passed the resolution promising to add teeth to its weak Lokpal Bill evidently came as a big relief for the people who for years waited in vain to see the arms of law catch the crooks.
The ray of hope kindled in Jagdish Gupta, a 74-year old cancer patient who sat on fast at Cuttack in support of Anna, underlines the climate of optimism the weeks of countrywide protest called from Ramlila Maidan has set in the state. "It is a good beginning, the like of which I had never seen in my life. I think time is running out for the corrupt in the government to rule the roost. I would not know how far the proposed Bill would meet the nation's expectations, but people are now very conscious not to let such elements go scot free," Gupta, resting after days of fasting, said over phone.
Gupta had big business at Malgodown, Cuttack's central trading centre. He was also the general secretary of Malgodown Chamber of Commerce. "Not in the distant past people in business were viewed as synonymous with corruption. We were treated as bottlenecks in development. But what all of us now experience is quite unbelievable. For everything one is forced to pay under the table.
At the sales tax office the staff is unwilling to give the waybill for transport of goods without bribe. In the hospital the doctor dares to play with the lives of patients till money reaches him. So is the situation in the education sector. From ministers to officials every wing of the government is steeped with corruption. Sometime back a trader colleague of mine after much persuasion filed a complaint with the police over a theft incident. The first thing the police did was to arrest some of his most trusted persons. It so happened that the complainant had to pay Rs 5,000 bribe for their release. We have degenerated to such level that when I was fasting some people collected money in my name and pocketed them," Gupta, who has since given up business, said.
Gupta's remarks are corroborated by former law minister Narsingh Mishra, who said: "Our system is so porous that anybody can get away doing anything". "Had our laws been powerful the present government would not have dared to suppress 24 investigation reports sent by the Lokpal. It also would not have survived so long despite the multi-crore mining scam and the series of other scams," Mishra said. "In Karnataka the Lokayukta report threw the chief minister out of power, but nothing has happened in Orissa," he pointed out. Mishra described the Orissa Lokpal and Lokayukta Act as a 'spineless law having no biting teeth. "Corruption cannot be prevented, but the corrupt can be taken to task, which is not really happening now. Repeated violation of law by the chief minister, ministers and bureaucrats can be prevented to a great extent by a strong law in hand," he said.
The former law minister said the two present laws, Prevention of Corruption Act, 1980 and provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) have put the investigating agencies to function under the control of the same government, whose activities are sought to be investigated. Hence, there is no tangible result. Added to it, when there are allegations of corruption leveled against the judiciary and the investigating agencies and prosecutor act as per the desire of the government, how can there be prosecution much less conviction," he pointed out. He said a strong Lokayukta will go a long way in punishing the corrupt and preventing corruption to a great extent, he added.
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