TIT BIT

Corruption: Collective greed of those elected and babus

Former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde said corruption had continued to rise in the country through collusion of the political class, and the bureaucracy had been unable to resists the dominance of the political leadership, leading to a blow to good governance.

“Legislature and bureaucracy have merged into one group like conjoined twins. One is supported by the other. If constitutional organs like the executive remain independent, there will be no political corruption. Corruption is because of the collective greed of elected representatives and bureaucrats,” Justice Hegde said, while delivering the Twelfth Nani A. Palkivala Memorial lecture in Mumbai. In his lecture titled “Is Good Governance a Right of a Citizen in Democracy?” Hegde claimed that the executive had failed to stand up to politicians, due to which good governance had suffered.

“Over the years political dominance in the guise of implementing people’s will has overshadowed the bureaucracy. This dominance has not been resisted by many bureaucrats who are willing to submit to this dominance. It is because of this that good governance has suffered in the country,” Hegde added.

He said good governance could be provided by public servants only when they realize they were not the masters of people but servants. Hegde said there was rising public perception about lack of ethics and fairness in the system both at the central and state levels. He also said it was unrealistic to expect ordinary people to bring change in the country if those in power did not have the will to facilitate and harbor change. “What action have people at the helm taken to stem corruption? The country does not want to be reminded of the evils of corruption. What it wants to know is what is being done about it,” Hegde said. 

Oldest message in bottle found

London:  A message in a bottle that washed up on a beach in Germany more than 108 years after it was thrown into the sea is believed to be the world’s oldest. The bottle was released in the North Sea between 1904 and 1906 and found by a woman on a beach in Amrum, Germany. A postcard inside asked anyone who discovered the bottle that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK. According to the association, the bottle was one of some 1,000 released as part of marine research. Inside each bottle was a postcard that promised a shilling to anyone who returned it. The existing world record for the oldest message in a bottle is 99 years and 43 days, found west of the Shetland Island in July 2013.