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| India.Corruption galore. www.flickr.com |
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| India. Anna Hazare, social worker and leader. 2ndlook.wordpress.com |
Swindling the government world over is a major problem and it is absolutely a tough task to plug the holes. If the holes in the laws and regulations are plugged successfully, the culprits drill new holes through which they escape Scott free. Cheating the government and the public is a bad a thing, and people with conscience won't stoop to such a level and get a bad rap. It does irreparable damage to the economy of the country and absolutely is not a healthy trend. There are innumerable departments under the Central or federal as well as state government administrations across India. So, it is a Herculean task to control irregularities in the Government unless both people and the employees cooperate with one another.
In India, it is altogether a different story because it is a populous country beset with various castes, communities, tribes, besides people following different religious faiths. Another problem is language which differs from region to region. These difficulties make the corruption problems a complicated issue. Although swindling the government - either state or central is not uncommon, the modus operandi is a significant factor. The funny thing is no body can ever dream of cheating the Central government at Delhi using the name of freedom fighters. The central government had a scheme to honor true freedom fighters who actively rebelled against the British Raj and spent sometime in the jail. The honorarium consisted of yearly pension plus a railway pass with an attendant for unlimited travel in any part of India.
As far back as 31st January, 2014 it came to light that the state of Bihar, North India had the highest number of over 23,000 freedom fighters getting pension - easy money sanctioned from the government at Delhi under ''Swatantra Sainik Sammon'' pension scheme of 1980. As per this scheme, the ''Thiyagees'' get Rs.15,000.00 yearly plus a monthly dole of Rs.2000.00. Of course, the freedom fighters are entitled to free railway 2nd class pass for each individual and his help. This will enable the patriots to travel through out the country with out any restrictions and, these people who scarified their lives for freeing our country,will be given special treatment wherever they travel. For several years the number of freedom fighters in Bihar getting pension from the government never came down. Whereas in the other states, there had been marked decline in the pensioners under freedom fighter's category. So, Bihar case became a suspicious one and had been under scanner for some time.
Further, upon numerous complaints about the misuse of this scheme, the sleuths from the government throughly investigated the matter and was shocked to find out that there were fake freedom fighters' rackets operating in the states. The kingpins of these rackets were the real culprits conning the New Delhi government all in the name of ex- Thiagees or freedom fighters so that the racketeers' genuine past record wont be questioned. Some cheats were involved in this dirty work in collusion with some higher ups. No body would ever think of abusing such a noble scheme being operated by the Indian government.
One fascinating, but funny aspect of this kind of racketeering is that there were numerous freedom fighters who were born after independence. One family from the remote village of Mushrai in Harblanga district had as many as 21 freedom fighters, surprisingly many of them were born after independence - August 15, 1947. People, who never saw the wily British officials of the Raj, had the honor of being called patriots, drawing pension and perks from the Delhi government!!
Now the state government has begun to go down to the bottom of the these novel racketeering operation.
Ref:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Bihar-has-23000-freedom-fighters-and-the-count-is-only-increasing/articleshow/15362858.cms
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