Many people may have noticed the news about the village assistant who was arrested by the vigilance while accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000 from a woman who came to pay the property tax. The poor housewife did not approach the village office to get any illegal service. It was only to pay the taxes that she had to go into the government. Everyone knows that remitting property tax is not such a big deal. In this case, he had several years of tax arrears. When the arrears increase, it is necessary to record evidence after seeing the property in person so as to ascertain the original owner of the property. The village assistant demanded a bribe of Rs 25,000 from the housewife to pay the tax and return the receipt. He also compromised his demand to reduce the bribe to Rs 15,000 after a lot of pleading. The village assistant was caught when the money was being handed over to him at a public place as promised. This was because the housewife was prudent in informing the vigilance about the bribe. Many may not take pains to do this.

Even after earning a decent salary, the government has not been able to put an end to the vicious practice of bribery in many government departments. Almost all bribery cases that are caught are with the prior knowledge of the vigilance. Even if caught in a bribery case, the accused can be convicted only if there is evidence and witnesses. It will take years for the case to reach the court and no evidence or witness will be found. After the initial suspension, the person who took the bribe might have returned to service. Ordinary people may have to pay bribe not only to pay taxes, but also to get transportation, survey the property and get an income certificate. The government has also fixed fee for accessing services from there without any hindrance. Officers have been appointed to provide timely service for a fee. Many dare to demand bribe, even after knowing that it is a crime to demand remuneration for service. Vigilance arrested a PRD official a few days back for soliciting a bribe of Rs 3.5 lakh to pass a bill of Rs 17 lakh. The news of the arrest of a senior engineer in a bribery case was also herd recently. The Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation’s (KMC) functioning had gone haywire during the past three weeks due to officials who swindled building tax of civilians. All this is happening without even a cover because the wrongdoers are getting adequate protection. If the service organizations were also interested in isolating the corrupt heroes and bringing them to justice, the curse of bribery for service would have ended to some degree.