New Delhi, April 29 (IANS) Corruption is a key issue these days, but in the public perception the level of malaise in public services seems to have come down, said a study released here Friday.
The CMS Corruption Study 2010, which surveyed 10,000 households in 12 states across the country, said that 45 percent respondents felt that corruption in public services involving the common man has increased. However, this was against 70 percent respondents with the same opinion in 2005, when the survey was last conducted – thus there is decline of 25 percentage points in public perception.
Then again, as compared to 2005, the study in 2010 found that the overall households which paid bribe in any public service has come down from 56 to 28 percent.
The exceptions in this case have been states like Chhatisgarh, Bihar, Kerala and Maharashtra.
The study covers four public services – the public distribution system (PDS), school education up to class 12, water supply and hospital services.
When it comes to paying bribe, the percentage of households that paid bribes in the last one year was relatively high in PDS (11.5 percent), followed by hospitals (9 percent), schools (5.8 percent) and water supply (4.3 percent).
‘Four to six percent households couldn’t afford these services as they could not afford to pay bribe,’ the study said.
The picture that emerges from the survey is also not so optimistic as the study highlights that 95 percent households which are asked for bribe end up paying it, bringing out that grievance redressal system continues to be poor and there is lack of accountability of public service providers.
