The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference , noted a perceptive observer years ago. That was then, in the high noon of the 'black and white' era in television . Fast-forward to the here and now, and the moral campaign of activist Anna Hazare to have civil society representatives included for drafting the Lokpal Bill, which is soon to be introduced in Parliament, so as to have a pathbreaking anti-graft law, seem to have paid rich dividends.
The ruling alliance at the Centre has acceded to his demands. It remains to seen how the implementation of the Lokpal Act actually pans out. But it cannot be gainsaid that we need much more transparency and openness in the public domain, to arrest corruption and tackle, say, routine revenue leakage in power distribution . The latest Economic Survey does mention that power sector losses add up to a whole percentage point of total national output annually, which now amounts to almost .80,000 crore. And it's noted in the passing, buried deep in the inside pages and merely outlined in a 'box' item.
Now, the root meaning of corruption is 'broken' or 'spoiled' , but in the social context the word denotes bribe or moral deterioration . And especially in high places in public life, in this extended season of scams and umpteen allegations of perverse give-and-take . However, it would be wholly sub-optimal to perceive corruption as merely misuse of public office for private gain. Routine corruption , such as theft of power, can mean illegality indulged for the very purpose of benefits or cost avoidance.
Meanwhile, the powers that be seem, of late, to be on an overdrive to announce stepped-up addition to power generation capacity pan-India . But power theft and its stemming and clamping down appears very much to get the short-shrift policy wise. For the last few years, the annual Economic Survey has preferred to downright expunge details of distribution losses of power utilities, having dropped an entire table of figures on rates of return, commercial losses and other attendant annual projections.
Without upto-date data about ground realities in the vexed power sector, the policy process would only plod along in the dark. The point is that without regular publication of accounts and figures on power distribution and supply, the decadal policy intention of having 'unaccounted power loss sharply reduced' , would be thoroughly defeated. Worse, it would be at huge national cost. The fact of the matter is that there's a large and widening gap when it comes to electricity generation and supply. Hence, instead of politically mandated tariffs and giveaways , we need competitively priced power to shore up delivery and plug the infrastructure deficit with proactive investment , including in line-capacity and supply networks.
We seem thoroughly lax in keeping tab of the questionable , open-ended leakages in power. The way ahead is to mandate quarterly publication of accounts of state power utilities . We do need political mobilisation and societal activism to shore up real power reforms. Yet we seem more focused on ritualising reforms. The power ministry does not fail to highlight that over 16 State Electricity Boards/electricity departments have been unbundled and corporatised , 28 states have constituted independent regulatory commissions (SERCs) and that 23 SERCs have issued open access regulations etc.
The ruling alliance at the Centre has acceded to his demands. It remains to seen how the implementation of the Lokpal Act actually pans out. But it cannot be gainsaid that we need much more transparency and openness in the public domain, to arrest corruption and tackle, say, routine revenue leakage in power distribution . The latest Economic Survey does mention that power sector losses add up to a whole percentage point of total national output annually, which now amounts to almost .80,000 crore. And it's noted in the passing, buried deep in the inside pages and merely outlined in a 'box' item.
Now, the root meaning of corruption is 'broken' or 'spoiled' , but in the social context the word denotes bribe or moral deterioration . And especially in high places in public life, in this extended season of scams and umpteen allegations of perverse give-and-take . However, it would be wholly sub-optimal to perceive corruption as merely misuse of public office for private gain. Routine corruption , such as theft of power, can mean illegality indulged for the very purpose of benefits or cost avoidance.
Meanwhile, the powers that be seem, of late, to be on an overdrive to announce stepped-up addition to power generation capacity pan-India . But power theft and its stemming and clamping down appears very much to get the short-shrift policy wise. For the last few years, the annual Economic Survey has preferred to downright expunge details of distribution losses of power utilities, having dropped an entire table of figures on rates of return, commercial losses and other attendant annual projections.
Without upto-date data about ground realities in the vexed power sector, the policy process would only plod along in the dark. The point is that without regular publication of accounts and figures on power distribution and supply, the decadal policy intention of having 'unaccounted power loss sharply reduced' , would be thoroughly defeated. Worse, it would be at huge national cost. The fact of the matter is that there's a large and widening gap when it comes to electricity generation and supply. Hence, instead of politically mandated tariffs and giveaways , we need competitively priced power to shore up delivery and plug the infrastructure deficit with proactive investment , including in line-capacity and supply networks.
We seem thoroughly lax in keeping tab of the questionable , open-ended leakages in power. The way ahead is to mandate quarterly publication of accounts of state power utilities . We do need political mobilisation and societal activism to shore up real power reforms. Yet we seem more focused on ritualising reforms. The power ministry does not fail to highlight that over 16 State Electricity Boards/electricity departments have been unbundled and corporatised , 28 states have constituted independent regulatory commissions (SERCs) and that 23 SERCs have issued open access regulations etc.
