Cancer of corruption spares none
By Rupsa Chakraborty
Corruption has penetrated our system so deeply that greedy government officials do not think twice about exploiting cancer patients.
A respondent from Nagpur (in Maharashtra) wrote to us about the painful encounter with corruption when he sent medicines to his father from the U.S., while he was employed there. The medicines were detained by the Customs Department in Mumbai. Despite repeated calls from his family based in Nagpur pleading for the medicines, they were not handed over. Finally, the family realised that the officials were expecting some money from them. They sent a person to the department along with a bribe of Rs 8,000. The medicines reached the family soon.
Another cancer patient, who returned from Atlanta after his treatment, was harassed by the customs officer for carrying a used camera on his person. Despite informing the office that he was a cancer patient and needed the money he carried on his person, the individual was forced to pay 150 dollars in order to carry the camera along. “I had to pay the bribe since I was dead tired and did not have courage to raise voice” he writes at http://www.ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/harassment-customs-officer-cancer-patient.
Will a cure ever be found for the corruption cancer?