Recently an incident happened in Karnataka wherein a minister has to resign due to irregularities while recruiting staff for medical colleges. When we debate on “who is responsible for corruption” it is chicken and egg story. We common people always say, it’s the politicians and bureaucrats who are corrupt. On the other side we forget that we(people) also have equal share in it.
I would like to narrate an incident which happened 1.5 years back; a cousin of mine applied for a job (Line man) in HESCOM or one of the power companies in Karnataka ( I don’t remember exactly). He has done ITI in Electrical with very good marks (around 78%) and was a very able candidate. Usually in our family everyone asks for my advice and my cousin as well called me up and informed that he has applied for this job. Especially people in north Karnataka respect govt jobs a lot and they go to any extent (in terms of bribe) to get it, I am bit embarrassed to say this but it’s the TRUTH . I have seen this closely in my native and as well from nearby villages and very well aware how it works.
As soon as they apply for the job, first thing they do is find out some agents and check out the possibilities and make a deal. These agents are some political party workers who have not even seen the schools in their life (maybe there are few who are studied but not passed the exams) and imagine they deal the jobs even up to KAS level. They dress up very nicely and walk with files all the time. Literally speaking; it’s their full time job.
Now coming back to my cousin incident, like most of his friends he was also negotiating with an agent and they had made a deal for Rs 100, 000. If he doesn’t get a job then the agent has agreed to return rupee Rs 95, 000 keeping Rs 5,000 as operational cost. Assuming an agent makes a deal with hundred guys and he earns 5 lakhs as part of operational cost that too non taxable . Before making a payment my cousin called me up and told that he is giving money to such and such guy. I asked my cousin to wait for few days and told him that I will talk to my friend father who was in a very good position in HESCOM. I walked into their house asking for an opinion and if there is any chance that he can help. Uncle told me that, the agents will cheat and asked me not to pay the money. He also said, it’s very transparent process now and no bribe works. He took the application number and interview dates and I left their house. I made a call to my cousin and told him not to pay the money. Whereas a friend of his went ahead and made the payment. Also my concern was that, cousin family is poor and his parents work as daily laborers and arranging 1L was a big deal for them. And it’s not easy to get the money back from these agents, they give you a hell lot of trouble before they return the money. I know some people who even left the money with agents as they couldn’t catch them ( a close friend of mine has lost almost 3.2L, he was trying for a govt job after engineering).
The selection procedure was like; they first do a physical round, short list the candidates based on the academic marks and then call for a final round of mock interview which carries 25 marks. These 25 marks makes difference because it’s in the bureaucrats hand and they can award the marks whatever the way they want. I think they keep some loop wholes like this which increases the possibility of bribe. After a wait of six months the results were published in the internet and unfortunately my cousin was not selected but his friend name was there in the list. I am not sure if that guy got selected because he went through an agent but it was evident that my cousin had better marks than this guy in the academics but he failed to get the job. I felt bad for my decision and after that decided not to advice anyone.
Now we have an environment where in we have to compete with the money and not with the marks/skills to land in govt job. I feel until we(people) change our mindset, I don’t see any chance of eradicating corruption. Instead of blaming politicians/bureaucrats, if we decide not to bribe then the whole system will change and it helps to create a better society. I speak about this a lot and try to create awareness among people whenever I get a chance to address public gatherings in my native. I request you all to do the same whenever you get an opportunity. This is what the max we educated can do I believe.
