Corruption in public services on the decline: survey

New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The extent of corruption encountered by citizens while availing public services has been on the decline in recent years, says a survey conducted by the Centre of Media Studies (CMS), a non-profit organisation.

The ‘2010 India Corruption Survey’ by the CMS showed a decline in graft over a period of five years in public services like phone, passport, electricity and rail reservations.

‘If corruption could come down over a five-year span, why can we not make all out efforts to achieve zero corruption in these services?’ asked N. Bhaskara Rao, chairman CMS, Thursday.

According to the survey, 67 percent of the people in 2005 felt that there was corruption in hospitals but in 2010 the figure dropped to 40 percent. A similar decline in graft was suggested when it came to schools where the figure dropped from 45 to 35 percent in the last five years.

The findings were based on a field survey done in the years between 2000 and 2005. The latest in a series of three surveys, the first one was carried out in 2005, it covered most states of the country.

‘There is an increasing percentage of citizens who said that corruption in public services had declined in the previous one year. Also, the percentage of those who had actually paid bribe during the year had also declined, as compared to a similar round of study in 2005,’ said the survey.

The survey said that in 2005 about 72 percent of people felt that corruption had increased but the figure dropped to 45 percent in 2010. Those who paid bribes in 2005 stood at 61 percent whereas it was 28 percent in 2010.