DIMAPUR, OCT 30 (MExN): A day ahead of the ‘Vigilance Awareness Week’, coinciding with the birthday of the ‘Iron Man of India Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel’, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio in his message called for greater resolve to fight the virus of corruption at all levels by one and all. Rio in particular made mention of the media and NGOs pointing out that they have to become the whistle blowers to detect, check and counter corruption because it is morally repugnant and inimical to growth, development and welfare of common man. “We in the Government should stop paying a lip service to fighting corruption if we want our legitimacy to grow”, Rio also stated.
Pointing out that the worst victims of corruption are the poor people, Rio said that corruption distorts markets, breeds cynicism, undermines the rules of law, damages the legitimacy of administration and corrodes the social fibre of the society.
“To deal with this monster, we need an anti-corruption movement with the people in the front to translate its rhetoric into action”, he stated while terming as unfortunate that there is growing inertia at different levels to take actions against acts of moral turpitude including bribery and extortion.
“Fighting corruption needs pursuit of enforcement, prevention and punishment with a missionary zeal and designing of institutional reforms to build a transparent accountable, durable, legal, economic and political foundation”, Rio suggested while blaming the forces that perpetuate the problems of corruption as money, greed, power and institutional weaknesses.
“To ward these off we have to create a politics that can make the policies of enforcement and prevention effective and change the mindset of states, governments, companies and the people”, Rio stated. In this regard, the role of media and NGOs is very important to expose the corrupt officials and elements in business and other areas as deterrent, he stated.
