murali772 - 4 May, 2010 | Bangalore | governance | Corruption | Media Reports | efficiency | accountability

This girl, from Bellary medical college, visited the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to collect her degree certificate on April 1. But four officials delayed giving it, citing various reasons. First, they told her the certificate was not signed by the vice-chancellor, and asked her to come after a couple of days. When she again went to them, they said the printer was out of order. They dilly-dallied this way for many days before finally demanding a bribe from her. Left with no choice, she knocked on the doors of the registrar. It was then the entire racket came to light. Immediately, the four officials were dismissed.

For the full report in the TOI, click here

What appears new here is the dismissal of the officials, which if true comes as a breath of fresh air. What we have normally been seeing all along is the people involved getting suspended, some half-hearted enquiry conducted, and eventually the entire lot re-instated, with back wages and promotions. This has inevitably been the case because of union clout or interference in the matter by political godfathers. So, if the RGUHS has indeed managed to overcome such constraints, it can become a path-breaking trend. And, that's perhaps the only way we can hope to bring about some accountability in our public institutions.

Muralidhar Rao
 

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