Lokpal a hope to curb corruption in India

Corruption is a major problem facing all the countries across the world in general and India in particular. The types of corruption have increased a thousand fold some of them are bribery, nepotism, theft and wastage of public property, misuse of power, dereliction of duty –etc. A close of history shows the deception, dishonesty, conspiracy in various spheres of life have existed all through the ages. The care of humanity, welfare of masses integrity, spirit of materialism has been losing its base. Power-status wealth has been influencing bureaucrats in India to large extent. The Bertelsmann Foundation 2008 report stated that India is characterised by a deeply rooted patronage system and pervasive corruption at all levels of the polity and administration. Acceptance of gratification as reward for word done in an official capacity, obtaining any object or pecuniary advantage illegally, fraudulent misappropriation of public property, being in possession of financial resources of property disproportionate to one's known sources of income, misuse or abuse of official position, borrowing money for purchasing a costly article from a person with whom one has official dealings with known understanding that borrowed money will not be returned accepting gifts by person of position from person with whom they have positional relation disregard of neglect of rules purposely to help the citizen in avoiding dues, tax, duty due to be paid to government, refusal to do a duty on some plea which may benefit the other party are some of the activities of the public officials. Corruption pervades the Indian administrative system with widespread practices of bribery, nepotism and misuse of official positions and resources.

The word Lokpal was coined in 1963 by L.M Singhvi a Member of Parliament during a debate in Parliament about grievance redressal mechanisms. Lokpal means protector of people. The prefix Jan (translation: citizens) was added to signify the fact that these improvements include input provided by “ordinary citizens” through an activist-driven, on-governmental public consultation. The Jan Lokpal Bill aims to effectively deter corruption, redress grievances of citizens and protect whistle blowers it would be empowered to register and investigate complaints of corruption against politicians and bureaucrats without prior government approval.

The Lokpal bill was first introduced by Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and passed in the 4th Lok Sabha in 1969. But before it could not be passed by Rajya Sabha, as Lok Sabha was dissolved and the bill lapsed. The Subsequent versions were re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008, but none of them passed. The lokpal is visualized as the watchdog institution on ministerial probity. Broadly the provisions of different bills empowered the Lokpal to investigate corruption cases against political persons at the central level. Main objective of the bill is to provide speedy, cheaper form of justice to people. In the proposed system lokpal will have complete powers to dismiss a corrupt official.