Karnataka corruption survey: 63% citizens admit bribing state officials to get work done

India Corruption Survey 2019 indicates 40 per cent of respondents in Karnataka gave bribes to get work linked to property registration and land issues done in the state while 23 per cent admitted paying a bribe to the police.

Property registration and land issues attracted most bribes from citizens in Karnataka, suggests India Corruption Survey 2019.

According to the survey carried out by Local Circles (an online community platform) and Transparency International India (an NGO striving against corruption in India), Karnataka featured among the top eight states where citizens had a big role to play in instance of corruption.

“63 per cent citizens of Karnataka who participated in the survey admitted to paying a bribe to get their work done, out of which 35 per cent gave bribes several times (directly or indirectly) while 28 per cent paid bribes once or twice (directly or indirectly). 9 per cent said they got work done without paying a bribe,” the report reads.

Further, the study indicates that 40 per cent of the respondents gave bribes to get work linked to property registration and land issues done in the state while 23 per cent admitted paying a bribe to the police.

At the same time, only 9 per cent of the respondents said they did not pay any form of bribe to the local authorities.

Over 1,90,000 responses from over 81,000 unique citizens from 248 districts of India were analysed in the survey which aimed to determine the level of domestic corruption in the country and the role citizens play in the same.

Incidentally, corruption linked to property registration and land issues were rampant across nine states in India – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttarakhand apart from Karnataka.

The states in which the least corruption was recorded, according to the survey, include Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, and Chandigarh.