Graft Graph

• Most corrupt states: Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir • Least corrupt states: Kerala, Himachal Pradesh • Bengal’s rank: 8th least corrupt • Most corrupt service: Police, schools • Most corrupt in Bengal: Water services

New Delhi, July 1: That Rs 100 bribe to the man from the telephone office may seem almost innocuous. The “sweets for your kids” money to the municipal clerk may seem a small price for a new water connection.

But when the small change of these petty, everyday bribes are added up across the country, they total Rs 21,068 crore a year ? more than twice the annual budget of Jharkhand.

The India Corruption Study 2005 conducted by Transparency International (India) has rated 20 states ? as well as 11 public services ? according to corruption.

The most corrupt, Bihar, is ranked 20th and the cleanest, Kerala, is ranked first.

The results show that when it comes to petty corruption, communist Bengal’s record is worse than that of Narendra Modi’s Gujarat. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s state ranks eighth on the list, five places behind Gujarat.

The public services covered by the study are: police, the lower courts, land administration, municipalities, government hospitals, electricity, public distribution system, income tax, water supply, education and farm micro-credit.

Among the states, Jammu and Kashmir emerges second most corrupt. The seven states cleaner than Bengal are Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Punjab.

The police are ranked the most corrupt service across all the 20 states surveyed, but it is the schools that often receive the biggest chunk of bribe money since more people interact with schools than with the police or the municipalities.

In Bengal, however, water services ? which handles new connections, supply and water tankers ? emerged the most corrupt.

In Orissa (ninth), the lower judiciary ranked among the four most corrupt services.

Among the new states, Jharkhand at 14th was rather high on the graft scale while Chhattisgarh, at sixth, did much better.

All the services in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, however, were much cleaner than those in the parent states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.

Karnataka (17th) and Tamil Nadu (12th) were the most corrupt among the southern states. The quartet of Bihar (20), Madhya Pradesh (18), Rajasthan (16) and Uttar Pradesh (10) lived up to their bimaru tag.

“The aim of the study is to sensitise the people against the all-pervasive corruption faced on a day-to-day basis by the common man,” said Admiral (retd) R.H. Tahiliani of Transparency International (India).