Graft: Zero Tolerance?
Dr Sanjay P Sawant Dessai
Recently while returning home I saw a police PCR jeep parked on the roadside, with two police constables seated inside the vehicle. Curious to know what they were doing, I slowed down my car and stopped at a distance of about 50 meters from the police vehicle, parked in the opposite direction.
Within a few minutes, I noticed that a heavy goods vehicle (bearing an Andhra Pradesh registration) stopped next to the PCR van. One person got down from the vehicle, gave some money to the police and left promptly. In another five minutes, two heavy goods vehicles (all with out-of-state registrations) did the same thing. They stopped their vehicles, approached the policemen and paid them some money, after which they promptly left.
I was surprised to see that vehicles were stopping next to the police van without any signals from the policemen stationed, to stop; there was no checking of documents, only the payment of a bribe, as if it were a daily routine.
I decided to report this matter to the police inspector of the concerned area and requested him to investigate the incident. The police Inspector told me to record the incident for evidence, as there was every possibility that the people involved would deny the incident. After waiting for five more minutes, I went up to the police jeep and told them they were acting like collection agents and spoiling the name of the Goa police department. To my utter shock they replied that everyone is indulging in such activity and it was not a big issue. The teacher in me compelled me to tell them that it was such behaviour that was deteriorating the system and the cause for people losing their faith in the police and its personnel. The police force, being the principal agent of law enforcement is therefore cast in poor light by society and the general impression is they can be bought for money.
Many ask me the name of the police and the area and are also willing to guide me to report this matter to the IGP. But I think otherwise. I feel that just complaining about the two constables to the authorities, may not solve the problem. We need to go to the root cause of the problem ~ there is a need for systemic change in the police department. The State Home Minister needs to work on a mechanism to weed out corruption from top to bottom in the administrative machinery. This will and action for zero tolerance to corruption, is much awaited by the citizens of Goa.
