{"id":208848,"date":"2022-09-30T20:38:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=208848"},"modified":"2022-09-30T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T15:08:04","slug":"after-the-floods-bengaluru-needs-to-clean-up-its-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/after-the-floods-bengaluru-needs-to-clean-up-its-act\/","title":{"rendered":"After the floods, Bengaluru needs to clean up its act"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article\u00a0\u201c<\/strong>After the floods, Bengaluru needs to clean up its act\u201d <\/strong>published in\u00a0The Hindu<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a030th<\/sup> September 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relevance:\u00a0<\/strong>concerns associated with corruption and measures to tackle them<\/strong><\/p>\n

News: <\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Bengaluru\u2019s floods have gone but they have left difficulties for the people. Difficulties such as flying of the dust in the air.<\/p>\n

According to the various analyses rainfall has been expected to increase to an average of 1,000 mm per annum from the current 650 mm per annum.<\/p>\n

The flood like situation in Bengaluru is generally blamed on builders, migrant, lack of spatial planning, etc.<\/p>\n

However, these are not only the cause of flooding in Bengaluru.<\/p>\n

There are other structural issues such as corruption also involved with the government that became the cause of flooding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0How does corruption affect the system?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Corruption reduces the economic growth.\u00a0 It transfers excessive wealth to the undeserving.<\/p>\n

It also leads to people who are against the anti-corruption process reforms. The corrupt often use the honest to fulfil their agendas. For example, abound.<\/p>\n

A government plays a major rule in reducing and increasing corruption. For example, it can make bye-laws so complex that the strictest law-abiding citizen cannot comply with them.<\/p>\n

These complex laws provide corrupt officials and politicians to freedom to bend them. These types of laws also provide opportunities for agents who bypass the rigidities of the system.<\/p>\n

These agents work parallelly with the government officials and people generally do not complain about them.<\/p>\n

The legal definition of corruption enables many in a corrupt system to escape punishment. Indian law recognises only corrupt acts by public servants to be \u2018acts of corruption\u2019 under the law.<\/p>\n

It gives the way to private corruption. Many government actions are outsourced to private agents who collect handling fees on behalf of the government.<\/p>\n

For example, builder\u2019s agents openly asking for bribes. Therefore, corruption can also be blamed for the Bengaluru floods.<\/p>\n

Moreover, e-governance mechanism has not helped to reduce corruption.<\/p>\n

How has e-governance not been effective in controlling corruption?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

E-Governance is often not the effective solution as claimed. E-enabled systems only relocate the place of corruption and they do not solve the problem.<\/p>\n

When large databases, such as land records are moved to paperless systems, they become vulnerable to manipulation.<\/p>\n

This leads to shifting of power form land administrators to the one who possesses the digital signature.<\/p>\n

Therefore, data entry operator becomes an important and corruptible person in the system.<\/p>\n

What can be the course of action?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

First,<\/strong> there should be regular assessments and evaluations of ongoing anti-corruption measures. They help in alerting new corruption opportunities.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/strong> there is a need for a genuine law of whistle-blower protection.<\/p>\n