Delhiites paid `240 crore as bribe in past year, says study

NEW DELHI: Most people in the Capital feel that among all public services, corruption is the highest in the police, says a study.

The survey, carried out by CMS-India in partnership with Transparency International, said a Delhi household on an average had to pay `2,486 as bribe in the past one year, totaling `239.26 crore across 15 public services.

According to the Corruption Study 2015 on Perception and Experience with Public Services in Delhi, the Delhi government’s transport department (driving licence) and the municipal corporation’s department issuing tehbazari permits were the most corrupt after the police.

The findings said nearly 30% of Delhi’s households had paid bribes during the past year to avail of public services.

“This latest report focuses on 15 public services in Delhi governed by the Union government, state government and the three municipal corporations,” director general of CMS PN Vasanti said here on Monday.

“1,501 households representing different socio-economic strata of the population were covered across nine districts of Delhi between the third week of July and the first week of August 2015 for the study,” Vasanti said.

Another key finding was that more than a third of households felt the level of corruption in the public services had ‘remained same’ during the past one year.

“The only significant perception is of decrease (45%) in corruption in state government-run services. Consistently, around 20% households felt corruption had increased in the last one year in public services under the three different governments. This is a significant finding as there have been claims in the last one year of decline in corruption, especially by the state government of Delhi,” CSE chairman N Bhaskara Rao said.

The civic bodies topped in terms of bribes. `45,000 was the highest amount to get building plans sanctioned by the MCD. The least amount (`20) was paid ‘to replace LPG gas pipes’.

The percentage of people who could not avail of a particular service was relatively high — around 8 per cent seeking driving licences were denied the services because they could not pay bribes; 6 per cent reported so in case of building plans and 5 per cent in case of Delhi Police.