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NEW DELHI: President A P J Abdul
Kalam on Thursday firmly spoke against the “dependency syndrome” prevailing in
the country saying “complex” policies and subsidies in the country have stunted
performance and diminished transparency.
Speaking at a biennial
conference on anti-corruption organised by the CBI, Mr.Kalam suggested setting up
of an independent commission comprising officials from various government
agencies for the strict enforcement of stringent laws to counter the
menace.
With a raging debate on
reservation in the backdrop, the President criticised what he described as “the
dependency syndrome”.
“Wherever there is an
independence to perform, we have performed well, whereas wherever we have
created a large amount of dependency through complex policies, procedures and
subsidies, our performance has been stunted and transparency diminishes,” he
said.
In this context,
Mr.Kalam citied the phenomenal growth of the information, communication and
technology sector despite severe constraints.
“There is a need to
introspect on this dependency syndrome, which we have created. We need to
remove these dependencies systematically and allow people to perform in a
competitive environment in the global market,” he said. For this, there has to
be ”re-formulation” of policies and procedures prevalent in the
legislature, executive and judiciary, keeping in mind the changing scenario across
the world and challenges confronting the economic sector in a global competitive
environment, he said.
Mr.Kalam favoured the
setting up of an independent commission comprising officials from various
government agencies for the strict enforcement of stringent laws to counter
corruption.
“Corruption is the
concern of our society, our youth and of course government also. I believe
a mission mode approach in elimination of corruption is essential. I am
going to advocate this to my government, ”Mr Kalam said during his speech at
CBI’s 16th biennial conference. “The system can have convergence of all agencies
to take decisions and execute them. The idea only struck me a few days ago and I
am working on it,” he said.
Mr.Kalam said the idea came to him
when he was surfing the internet to find a corruption-free country. “Hong
Kong,40 years back, has been described as though it was what we witnessed in
many areas in the Indian scene. But today,Hong Kong is free from corruption. I
was told that this has happened through their one action of establishing a
powerful independent commission against corruption”. Mr.Kalam said he was
studying this example and its suitability for application in the Indian
environment. |
