April 2, 2000 ANTI-META STRIPS STIR TURNS VIOLENT Police fire in air, resort to lathi-charge; Kadamba buses torched

The anti-Meta Strips agitation took a violent turn on Saturday, with a large number of activists damaging and setting State-owned Kadamba buses afire at Cortalim, forcing the police to fire one round in the air, burst one tear gas shell and resort to a light lathi-charge to restore order. A total of 14 State-owned KTC buses, including five mini-buses, were damaged in stone throwing incidents on the National Highway 17, between Cortalim and Pirnir.

Irked over the alleged police highhanded, the agitators then erected road blockades at several places between Cortalim junction and the Verna slope.

Around 11 am, three nuns and some women gathered at the cross junction and demanded the release of the youth arrested buy the police. The youth was later released….

Police have arrested six persons (Armando Fernandes, Inacio Fernandes, Damiao Fernandes, Ms Rosada Maria Fernandes, Ms Tina Fernandes and Ms Belardina D'Silva), for offences of rioting, unlawful assembly, mischief by fire, causing damage to public property and wrongful restraint.

(Courtesy: Herald, April 2, 2000). (Courtesy Joel De Souza)

UN Warns India on Illiteracy

UN Warns India on Illiteracy By VINOD DHAWAN INDIA POST ASIA BUREAU NEW DELHI: India will be the most illiterate country in the world by 2000, warns ‘The State of the World’s Children 1999 -- Education’, the Unicef report which was released here coinciding with its global launch in London. Presenting an ominous scenario, the report says that 130 million children of developing countries in the primary school age, of which 40 million are in India, have been denied their fundamental right to basic, quality education and 150 million more drop out of school before Class V due to sub-standard learning situations. The report which was released by Unicef’s representative to India Alan Court, observes that the severe poverty in the region along with the persistent problem of child labor, a cause and consequence of low enrolment and high drop-out rates, are major constraints in the success of any major literacy programs. Talking about the report, development economist Shiv Kumar said that the success of the literacy programs was a matter of spending priorities rather than shortage of funds.

CORRUPTION: India Hails 9th place from the bottom of 54 countries

Corruption in India, comprising a collection of essays by eminent economic experts such as Samuel Paul, S Ghugan, A G Noorani and Mahadav Godbole calls for a total rethink on the subject. In India, the authors trace the problem to a weak political system, over bureaucratisation and lack of public faith in the working of public services, governmental and policing institutions. The book calls for the popularisation of the Lok Pal system, a code of conduct for politicians, and the sensitisation of the Indian administrative system to the ills of corruption. "A careful poll taken among business interests and financial journalists by Transparency International, the reputed anti-corruption non-governmental organisation, placed India 9th from the bottom of 54 countries with a score of 2.63 on a scale with a maximum of 10 for the totally corrupt-free country..." Corruption can straddle the public and private sectors, getting reinforced in the interaction between the two spheres. However, given our focus on corruption in public services, it might be useful to start with the simple definition that corruption is the misuse of public power for private gain. Other definitions have been offered, based on the misuse of public office, violation of public interest, disapproval of public opinion, and the illegal use of public office for private gain. These and similar definitions have been critiqued on the ground that they tend to be too broad and indeterminate since there could be much debate on what constitutes ‘misuse’ or ‘public power’ or ‘public interest’. On the other hand, definitions of corruption that link it narrowly to bribery have been faulted on the ground that they leave out forms of misconduct related to corruption in terms of cause or consequence, such as nepotism, patronage, and a variety of ‘white collar’ offences which may or may not involve direct or immediate financial considerations. Furthermore, economic policies based on administrative regulations__such as permits and licences for the allocation of investment approvals, scarce resources and the like, and administratively targeted welfare benefits and subsidies create powerful incentives for bribery. In terms of sociological factors, it has been argued that caste, kinship and patron-client relationships, especially in predominantly rural societies, generate and reproduce corruption through networks of nepotism, patronage and dependency. The conclusion that emerges on the basis of available empirical evidence is that it would be untenable to characterise democracies or developing countries or traditional societies as immutably condemned to a state of corruption. Within each such category, there are less-corrupt and more-corrupt societies, and also those with, over time, have been able to move from a higher to a lower level of corruption. In some societies, pervasive corruption has yielded place to corruption, which is more or less confined to certain sectors or types of activities. Turning from the causes to the consequences of corruption, there is a much greater convergence of views. There is considerable agreement about the adverse effects of corruption on society, polity and economy. Corruption corrodes the moral fibre of society. It undermines the legitimacy of governments because of the widespread cynicism that breeds not only on the factual basis, but also on perceived levels of corruption and related misdeeds. The political process needs reform at strategic points in order to create an enabling environment that is conducive to the control of corruption. There is considerable evidence in India on the close links between political corruption and the criminalisation of politics. India has acquired the unenviable reputation of being among the most corrupt countries in the world. A careful poll taken among business interests and financial journalists by transparency International (TI), the reputed anti-corruption non-governmental organisation, placed India 9th from the bottom of 54 countries with a score of 2.63 on a scale with a maximum of 10 for the totally corrupt-free country. Samuel Paul & S. Guhan, Corruption in India: Agenda for Action, New Delhi: Vision Books

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