Expressing concern at the rising levels of corruption, former Lokayukta of Karnataka and Judge of the Supreme Court of India, N. Santosh Hegde on Thursday said any further corruption would lead to collapse of democratic systems.
Delivering the 9 Gutta Sri Rama Rao memorial lecture on ‘Relevance of Lok Pal in Contemporary India' at the NALSAR University of Law here on Thursday, he traced the history of efforts seeking to bring in the Jan Lok Pal Bill since 1964, when the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was appointed to assess the volume of corruption and maladministration in governance.
Corruption had reached astronomical figures, but even after 44 years and nine drafts to enable a Lok Pal Act, the Bill was yet to be passed, he said, adding that if it was seen through in 1968, at least the levels of corruption would have been considerably reduced. “Obviously elected people and bureaucrats do not have the will or desire to create an institution that would investigate their actions and omissions,” he said.
Recalling the content of a recent book ‘Anna Hazare - The face of India's fight against corruption', written by Pradeep Thakur and Pooja Rana, he listed out 13 scams between 1992 and 2009, all of which ranged between Rs. 100 crore to a whopping Rs. 1.76 lakh crore in the latest scam pertaining to sale of 2G spectrum.
Referring to criticism against the panel put together by the anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and his draft, Mr. Hegde clarified that it only wanted the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation to be merged with the proposed Lok Pal. He said it was an example of how Mr. Hazare's draft was being subjected to false propaganda.
Earlier, NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Veer Singh welcomed the gathering, while its Registrar M. Sridhar proposed the vote of thanks. G.K.B. Chowdary, Managing Director, Vasant Chemicals, outlined the objectives of the endeavour behind organise the memorial lecture.
