The Hindu : New Delhi News : Touts a big problem, admits Delhi Govt.

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 17, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Touts a big problem, admits Delhi Govt.

Sujay Mehdudia

`Leads to corrupt practices and exploitation of citizens'

NEW DELHI: Acknowledging that transparency and openness in administration is still a distant dream, the Delhi Government has officially confessed to the existence of touts and middlemen in various departments leading to corrupt practices and exploitation of citizens.

The confession came from the State Chief Secretary, S. Regunathan, during a recent meeting he chaired of 20 senior IAS officers of various departments in the administration. According to the minutes of the meeting called to discuss issues like improving public interface, feedback forms, action against touts and training programme for officials, the Chief Secretary said: "The tout menace should be checked to reduce corrupt practices. The element of discretion in decision-making should also be curbed through systematic changes and re-engineering of work processes." However, the Value Added Tax and the Food and Supplies Departments earned the praise of the Chief Secretary.

Interestingly, it was also revealed that nearly 12 lakh bogus ration cards had been detected and eliminated in the past few months, indicating the level of corruption in the Food and Supplies Department that has already come under the scanner of the investigation agencies in the recent past. Mr. Regunathan was of the view that police help should be taken to remove all touts and middlemen working in various offices.

Mr. Regunathan also informed the officers that he had convened the meeting to highlight the need for taking urgent steps to improve public interface, enforce use of feedback forms, removal of touts around various offices and impart training to officers and staff at all levels. Rounding off the discussions, the Chief Secretary stressed the need to re-engineer processes and procedures to simplify them. He said a system should be developed so that the discretionary powers of the field staff and lower functionaries get reduced in order to curb corrupt practices and change the work culture so that the citizens do not have to visit offices time and again to get their things done.

Further, he said, regular inspections of offices should be conducted by senior officers to ensure hygiene and cleanliness. Apart from this, it was also felt that the possibility of taking the services of the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation for maintenance work of government buildings should be examined, as the Public Works Department was unable to cope up with such requests in time.

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