Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu Most Corrupt: Survey

New Delhi: There has been a "definite decline" in petty corruption in the country between 2013 and 2017, a new survey by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) has reported.

"There has been a definite decline in both perception and experience of citizens about corruption in public services between 2005 and 2017," said the 'CMS India Corruption Study 2017'. It added that 43% of the households covered under the study perceived increase in corruption level in 2017 compared to 43% in 2005.

The study, released by NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy on Thursday, covered around 3,000 households from over 200 rural and urban clusters of 20 states.

Of these 20 states, people in Karnataka (77%) faced corruption the most in accessing public services. "This is followed by Andhra Pradesh (74%), Tamil Nadu (68%), Maharashtra (57%), Jammu and Kashmir (44%) and Punjab (42%)," the report said.

"Total amount paid by households across 20 states and 10 public services as the bribe is estimated to be Rs 6,350 crore in 2017 against Rs 20,500 crore in 2005," the report added.

At the launch of the report, Bibek Debroy said, "Big-ticket corruption is linked with electoral reforms."

CMS Chairman N Bhaskara Rao said the key reasons for paying bribe in a public service remained consistent between 2005 and 2017 "indicating there has been little focus on ground level issues while addressing corruption".

"We have been producing reports on corruption for many years. We wanted the NITI Aayog to take note of this, as they are the policy makers," Rao said.

"In 2005, the more corrupt states were Bihar (74%), Jammu and Kashmir (69%), Odisha (60%), Rajasthan (59%) and Tamil Nadu (59%)," the think-tank said.

CMS said a telephonic survey was also conducted in January on the impact of demonetisation to assess citizen's perception on the level of corruption in public services with a randomly selected sub-sample in all the 20 states.

"More than half of the respondents felt the level of corruption decreased during that period (November-December last year), while 12 percent opined that graft had increased in that period 21 per cent felt it had remained the same," the survey said.

(With agency inputs)