Police corruption in Delhi increases drastically: Survey  

Policing is now the top area of corruption in Delhi.

The cases of police corruption have increased drastically in the national capital while cases of bribery in property registration have reduced as compared to last year.

According to the India Corruption Survey 2019 conducted by LocalCircles in collaboration with Transparency International India, as compared to last year, the cases of police corruption have drastically increased from 13 per cent to 33 per cent this year.

At the same time, cases of bribery in property registration and land issues have reduced from 41 per cent to 26 per cent this year.

Delhi fares better than the national average on corruption with 46 per cent of the citizens paying bribes in the last one year.

In the national survey, 51 per cent citizens admitted to paying bribes in the last 12 months.

The survey was also conducted on a state level where over 8,700 votes were received from Delhi. As many as 46 per cent og citizens from Delhi who participated in the survey admitted to paying bribes to get their work done, out of which 25 per cent gave bribes several times while 21 per cent paid bribes once or twice. Only 19 per cent said that they got their work done without paying a bribe.

This number stood at 46 per cent last year too, showing that cases of corruption in the capital have been constant in the last two years.

According to the survey, the Doorstep Service Delivery (DSD) launched by the Delhi government in late 2018, which targets doorstep delivery of 100 public services like birth certificate, marriage certificate, driving license etc. to the residents of Delhi, might have something to do with it.

Citizens appreciated the launch of DSD service as it aimed to eliminate touts, hence reducing cases of corruption in Delhi.

The survey noted that 26 per cent gave bribes for property registration and land issues while 21 per cent paid off the Municipal Corporation; 33 per cent paid bribes to the police and 20 per cent paid bribes to others (electricity board, transport office, tax office etc.)

According to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2018, giving a bribe is an offence with up to seven years of imprisonment or fine or both.

In this year's survey, Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kerala, Goa and Odisha turned out to be the states where citizens reported low instances of corruption, while Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Punjab were the states where citizens reported higher instances of corruption.-IANS