Anna pushes govt to combat petty corruption

The government may not have agreed on Anna Hazare's demand on Lokpal but his campaign has pushed the government to fast track its technology based solution to tackle petty corruption. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Aug 23, 2011, 02:23:09 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government may not have agreed on Anna Hazare's demand on Lokpal but his campaign has pushed the government to fast track its technology based solution to tackle petty corruption.

Central to success of Hazare's campaign is growing disenchantment of general public, or aam aadmi, against corruption in seeking public service. Many, who joined Anna, had complained how they had to pay money to get a birth or a death certificate or nothing moved in a government office for getting an electricity or water connection.

The government believes that one stop solution to many of these problems was Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar which will minimise interface with public servants and online availability of services.

"Having an Aadhaar number would mean no requirement of bulk of documents to seek a certificate from the government," a senior government official said. "If you have Aadhaar the beneficiary will be assured."

It is because the Aadhaar number is issued only after checking a basic set of documents. To get Aadhaar number, one should have a document for identity, for proof of address and birth. A person having any one of the documents from the list of 17 for one's identity, 29 to verify address proof and four for track date of birth can get an Aadhaar number.

If the person does not have any of these documents, the Unique Identification Authority of India has started an introducer concept to give him the unique number. The introducer will be the one having an Aadhaar number and his name will be mentioned in the computer records of the person introduced by him. "This will ensure that everyone gets an Aadhar number," an official said.

Once the person has the number availing many public services would almost be automatic. "If you have an Aadhaar number the government official will have to issue birth or death certificate," an official said.

If the official fails, there will be a public grievance mechanism to punish the official. The Central government is planning to bring a model public service delivery bill providing timeline for providing public service. A draft bill for public online services has already been circulated for inter-ministerial consideration.

Bihar has already taken a lead with enactment of a law providing guarantee to public service and penalty for officials failing to do so. "The public grievance redressal mechanism will soon be brought before the Cabinet," a senior Central government functionary said.

A senior government minister felt that once these measures fructify in a year or so the public disenchantment with governance will probably reduce.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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