In 1941, a bribe of Re. 1 landed him in jail

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addresses the Conference of Central Bureau of Investigation & State Anti-Corruption Bureaux in New Delhi on Friday.

Did you know that a person was handed down four-month rigorous imprisonment (RI) for taking bribe of Re. 1 about 70 years ago? Shaukat Ali was caught red handed on September 8, 1941 in Quetta, now in Pakistan, while accepting a bribe of Re. 1. Besides the RI, he was also fined Rs.100.

Giving this information at the two-day biennial conference of the CBI and State anti-corruption bureaux here on Friday, officials of the CBI pointed out that even Kautilya, popularly known as Chanakya, had warned in his writings about the phenomenon of corruption and the tendency of officials in ancient India to misappropriate government funds.

From ancient India to the modern times, the fight against corruption and cleaning up the public life has assumed new proportions and, as CBI Director A.P. Singh pointed out, the country is today witnessing a mood of increasing intolerance towards corruption.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who inaugurated the conference, said that in the last few months the debate over the possible ways and means to curb corruption and improve the processes of governance had intensified in the country.

“As part of our efforts to reduce opportunities for corrupt practices, we are also working out ways and means to minimise discretionary powers of public authorities. The matter is being considered by a Group of Ministers. The same Group of Minister is also looking at the issue of public procurement law to minimise irregularities in the award of government contracts worth thousands of crores of rupees every year. In the next few months, it is my hope that we will be able to introduce a bill in Parliament for such legislation.” In the seven sessions spread over two days, the conference would deliberate upon issues such as combating corruption for economic development, attachment and forfeiture of property, challenges in investigation of disproportionate assets cases, need for strengthening state anti-corruption machinery and Lokayukta models in some States.

The Prime Minister gave away medals to eight CBI officials for their distinguished service. They are: S.J. M. Gillani, Suman Bala Sahoo, Bhupinder Kumar, Ganesh Verma, J. Nayak, R.N. Dash, S.K. Kantiwal and N. Surendran