Srinagar, Dec 10: Youth Ambassador-IYS, President of International Human Rights Commission for Jammu and Kashmir Fahar Baba said that it is a pleasure to be here on International Anti-Corruption Day.
It’s a day to consider the impact of corruption in India and consider what more we can all do together to combat it, a statement issued here reads.
“I stress the word “together” Because a partnership is needed to tackle corruption and the government recognises that there is a serious corruption problem in India. Corruption has many dimensions affecting political, economic and the social environment of all countries. It undermines democratic institutions, slows economic development and contributes to governmental instability.”
In the political sphere it undermines democracy and good governance. It reduces accountability and distorts representation in policy making. It undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance. The impact of corruption on economic is that it leads to depletion of national wealth and is responsible for increased costs of goods and services, conversion of public wealth to private and personal property, inflation and imbalanced economic development, the statement added.
Corruption discourages cooperation among people working for the common good. Demanding and paying bribes becomes the tradition and results in social inequality and insecurity, it added.
Fahar Baba said, “As a nation we have moved substantially forward in our battle against corruption. The task of ensuring transparency and accountability has acquired urgency as never before. The Right to Information is a powerful tool in ensuring transparency and accountability in our public life. Government of India is committed to expeditiously move forward on a comprehensive agenda of executive, legal and technology reforms to curb corruption and deliver good governance. The recent spate of action taken by the Government of India against corruption has unfortunately portrayed India as a corrupt nation. We know that this is not true and we must support the Government. As citizens of India it is our duty to extend our cooperation and support to the Government in its battle against corruption. Other organizations should come forward like International Human Rights Commission to participate by minimizing opportunities of corruption.”
“Let us strengthen the hands of the Government and not just criticize its efforts. As citizens of India we should not tolerate or allow corruption to retard our progress and lower our image internationally. The role each of us as citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir and the Nation can play in fighting against corruption,” he added.
