Realty boom behind graft in land registration

     The registration department of late leads other departments like revenue, transport, police and the state electricity board in the number of cases filed against it by the Department of Vigilance & Anti-Corruption Cell. Interestingly, the number of cases filed against officials of registration department was only five during 2003-04 when the state witnessed the first real estate boom of the decade. In fact three years back, the land registration department trailed behind other departments in the number of corruption cases it faced. The focus has now shifted to registration department and its number has gone up although the departments like, revenue, transport, police and electricity Board were notorious for bribes since ages. One is at a loss to understand and prescribe a fool-proof remedy to such a situation prevailing in the country. Despite changes in governments and the presence of a bunch of good-intentioned bureaucrats and technocrats, the issue of high-level corruption and petty bribes continues to flourish at the cutting edge level of government and public agencies unfortunately.