PANJIM: The recent inquiry by the Crime Branch into the Louis Berger bribery case has opened a Pandora’s Box as to the quantity of bribes being taken at the highest level to clear projects.
Investigations so far reveal that former PWD minister Churchill Alemao was paid Rs 75 lakh while former chief minister Digamabar Kamat was paid Rs 1.35 cr to clear the consultancy project by US-based Louis Berger International Inc.
Depositions of Sanjay Jindal, Shiv Ram Prasad of Louis Berger and Prasanna Shah of Shah Consultants have nailed the duo.
The amounts – Rs 1.35 and Rs 75 lakhs – are figures difficult for the common man to understand and so Herald undertook to study how much time a common man would need to earn the amount delivered to the two politicians in 30 minutes.
Consider for instance the salary of the most common government employee – a Lower Division Clerk – of who there are around 25,000, with a pay scale of Rs 5200-20200 and a grade pay of Rs 1900.
The LDC has a carry home salary of around Rs 30,000 or below depending on his PF contribution, loans, advances and other deductions.
Calculating at the rate of Rs 30,000 per month an LDC would need 37 and a half years to reach the figure of Rs 1.35 cr, that means an entire working life to make the kind of money the former ministers made in days if not hours.
Similarly, consider junior grade officers like Dy Collectors, Joint Mamlatdars, Deputy Superintendents who are recruited in the pay scale of Rs 15600-39100 and a grade pay of Rs 5400 they have an average carry home salary of Rs 55,000 per month, considering the PF contribution, loans, advances and other deductions.
Even then a Deputy Collector or a DySP, with take home salary of half a lakh, will need 21 years to reach a figure of Rs 1.35 cr.
Coming to the creamy layer of society like engineers, IITians, IIM and MBA degree holders who earn Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh a month, even they would need a decade to reach the figure of 1.2 cr and above.
Rough calculations of an engineer’s average salary of Rs 1 lakh will need eleven years to make the fortune of Rs 1.35 crore.
While some employees can still hope to reach the magic figure in their lifetime, a daily wage worker needs to be born three times and work from the day he is born to reach that sum. The State government recently increased the minimum wage to 284 per day and if you consider this, a daily wager would need 130 years to reach the figure of 1.35 cr.
Herald spoke to Dr Samir Kelekar, a member of India Against Corruption (IAC), who feels that the common man has lost hopes now as they have no role model to follow.
“While they struggle to make ends meet, corrupt people go on getting richer,” he said.
He stated that there is no faith left in anyone so the common man also sees corruption as the only way to make fast money.
“Not only the politicians but also the company Louis Berger should be banned in this case for a certain period as not only taking but giving a bribe is also a crime,” he said.
A government employee, who did not want to be named, said, “It is because of corrupt politicians and corrupt companies like Louis Berger that there is no honesty left in society.”
Another employee says the main reason for becoming corrupt is that employees are not paid enough to satisfy their desires and once that happens corruption will die its own death.
