Taking corruption by the collar : Here is how a Chennai NGO will fight graft

You can be a part of Arappor Iyakkam's fight too.
Taking corruption by the collar : Here is how a Chennai NGO will fight graft
Taking corruption by the collar : Here is how a Chennai NGO will fight graft

Anti corruption forum Arappor Iyakkam launched a statewide campaign on Sunday, aimed at exposing acts of corruption by politicians and bureaucrats and to bring in transparency in the system. TNM caught up with its coordinator Jayaram Venkatesan who spelt out how exactly the organisation will come up with recommendations to put an end to graft.

Recently, the Arappor Iyyakam carried out audits of government hospitals and urban Primary Healthcare centres (PHCs) in Chennai and listed out the gaps in services. The survey was conducted across nine medical centres across the city. The key issues that arose were - unclean drinking water, improper maintenance of toilets, unclean drinking water, bribery and delay in access to basic services.

"Following this we came up with four recommendations - a board listing names of doctors and what their timings will be, Information of purchase of equipment for hospital to be updated on website and cost of services offered at the hospital," says Jayaram Venkatesan, the coordinator of Arappor Iyyakkam. "So similar to this we have chosen three more departments to investigate and produce reports," he adds.

These departments include the Regional Transport offices, Taluk offices and Ration shops. The campaign will begin with videos exposing corruption in these departments and reports on bribe taken. Each campaign will last about 3 months and at the end of it the forum will come up with recommendations to stem the corruption.

"It will be a sustained campaign that will last a year," says Jayaram. "We will point out all facets of wrongdoing," he adds.

But what about the resources for such a task?

"We are depending on volunteers to help us out like in the case of hospitals where 50 people came forward," explains the coordinator. "Corruption is a malice that affects us all and we need to fight it together. Anybody who wants to register can do so through a form in our website," he adds.

Arappor Iyakkam has done many reports in the past years on alleged corruption by various politicians including VK Sasikala and her family.

 

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