Officials asking for tea, lunch also corruption: Goa CM

Panaji, Jan 10 (IANS) Seeking money as bribes is not the only form of corruption. Asking applicants or petitioners in government offices for tea and lunch is also such an act, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said Saturday.

"Corruption does not mean dealing with money alone..." Parsekar said at the launch of a new single window system aimed at facilitating ease in revenue matters related to partition of property.

Narrating some travails ordinary people have to endure to get their work done in Goa's government offices, he said officials sometimes tended to push their tea and lunch bill on to the applicants keen on getting their work done on time.

"'There is a hotel close by... it is packed so you go ahead... if not tea, let's go for lunch' (the official says), because of which his (applicant's) work is delayed... All these are methods of corruption," Parsekar said.

He said that ideally citizens should not have to visit government offices every now and then, and they should be informed of their application status via SMS, which would help minimise corruption.

The single window system which will function out of the office of the deputy collector in North Goa district for now, is a special software module developed by state-run Goa Electronics Limited (GEL).

Parsekar said e-governance initiatives should not be restricted to the collector's office alone, but should also be started in other government departments.

"In the real sense, the single window system should be used as much as possible, not just limited to one particular work or a department," he said.