Elect a corruption-free regime

The stories don’t go away… corruption is rampant in every sub-sector of the energy economy. Coal blocks are being rapidly allocated — as opposed to being competitively bid — to reap the maximum advantage from the informal margin that has been established on it. Environmental clearances for projects are being ‘sold’ with complete disregard to the long-term damage to ecosystem stability. Rich, dense forests are being compromised in the name of development. Petroleum product pricing cannot be rationalised despite the evidence that subsidies are not reaching the poor, because of the handful of politically well-connected people who own the dealerships/distributorships and are the main beneficiaries of the economic leakages that ensue. India is facing huge energy shortages and the people living here have suffered its consequences. The populations of various cities have taken to the streets at different times protesting these shortages. We often hear of coal non-availability as the reason for sub-optimal performance of power plants. If we do not urgently start addressing these problems of performance, then, as has been happening, India may continue to expect a healthy rate of growth but the costs of the same would be significantly higher. As a democracy, we need to ask ourselves as to how we can exercise our franchise to disallow the exploitation of natural resources that nurture us and protect our long-term interests. The institution of independent regulatory commissions was introduced with great fanfare as the antidote for political interference in the operations of energy sector in the country. Over a period of time, it has become apparent that no government — central or state — is genuinely interested in creating this arm’s length distance between government and industry. May be it is vested interests that explain the unwillingness of the government to empower the petroleum regulatory board to establish prices or to put in place an independent coal regulator or to allow the electricity regulatory commissions to establish prices independent of political interference. And, if this is so, this is the paradox that India faces — who is going to bell the cat of corruption? The Administrative Reforms Commission, in its report on ethics and governance, has made several recommendations on bringing about greater transparency, accountability and integrity in public services. They recommended, and we have for long debated, the need for disqualifying people with a criminal record from standing for public office as also the need for greater scrutiny of financial dealings, but to no avail. No authoritative and systematic study has been undertaken to document corruption in the energy sector, but a study done by Transparency International in 2005 for the water sector had found that more than half of their respondents said that there was corruption in the water supply departments and nearly 40 per cent believed that corruption was increasing. The situation with the energy sector cannot be very different. As far as the environment departments go, the general lament of the economic sectors and industry is that environment-related hurdles are being placed on projects as a means of generating unlawful revenue for the officials concerned. These could be the same projects for which industry has already ‘had to pay’ unaccounted for amounts to win the right to establish a project — their anguish at ‘having to pay’ more for environmental clearances can, therefore, be empathised with somewhat. But, why cannot there be an accepted code of ethics for business operations? We have at least three, and more, wonderful and influential industry associations in the country — what is their role in all this? The energy sector, and our desperate need to gain access to the services that derive from it, has made all of us willy-nilly party to the rot that has set into the system. A recent survey of the citizens of Delhi in the run-up to elections showed that the priority of residents had changed from ‘bijli-sadak-pani’ to ‘pani-sadak-bijli’. But if we allow ourselves to be bought by promises of low-cost — or even free — services without focusing on the larger picture of performance and service quality, then we have earned our misery. We need to move away from satisfying our immediate and narrow need — both individually and among the powers-that-be — of first looking after ourselves and then thinking about the larger good. Our future, and that of the generations to follow, is in our hands. Can we ask for the change that the American people so forcefully endorsed in their own system? The longing for an inspiring leadership of our own was visible in the eyes of young and old in India — can we influence our electoral outcome toward an honest, efficient and responsive government?