Issues of corruption in panchayats

Problem: 

Corruption has seeped into all government works. Payments are made not only for works of extremely cheap quality but also for non existing works which are only shown on papers. When the 
citizens make complaint no action is taken. There are two reasons behind this. 

• a. Whenever a government work takes place, the verification of the work is carried out by a government official that the work has been carried out as per specification and, therefore, the payment should be released. The citizens or the gram sabhas are not involved in this process of verification. In Uttar Pradesh the SDM verifies that a canal has been cleaned properly. Many a times he just accepts a bribe and gives a verification certificate in spite of the fact that the cleaning has not even taken place. No body bothers to ask the farmers who use the canal water if the same is cleaned or not. 

• When complaint is lodged against these officials with their senior officer, the inquiry is conducted by the officers of vigilance department. Under political pressure, or by accepting bribes or just because of carelessness they do not take any action. The citizens on the other hand have no control over these vigilance officers. 

Suggestions: 

In our view on the above mentioned issues the gram Sabha should be given the following powers. 

• Unless gram Sabha has given a certificate of satisfaction of the executed work of the government, no payment should be made to the contractor who has carried out the work. In case the work is of poor quality then the gram Sabha should also have power to initiate an inquiry into the works. The tainted contractor should be black listed and orders should be passed to correct the deficiency in the works. If guilty officials, responsible for the work, are under the jurisdiction of the gram sabhas then gram sabhas should have power to take action against them. 

• If corruption is of criminal nature then gram Sabha must be empowered to direct the police to register an FIR and give regular reports on the progress of their inquiry.