BANGALORE: Highest proportion of bribes to secure delivery of public services lies in the disbursement of pension in Karnataka. According to a study conducted by the Karnataka State Planning Board on ‘Public Service Delivery in Karnataka’ conducted by the Public Affairs Centre, Bangalore, highest proportion of bribes are reported in the delivery of pension service.The study was done to assess the reach, quality and responsiveness of selected seven services including that of public bus transport, food and civil supplies, Nemmadi Kendras, veterinary health care and pension schemes.The report which was submitted to the State Planning Board in December 2010, revealed that bribes by almost 10 to 32 per cent of people is being given with the exception of Bus Service and Nemmadi Kendras.The report highlighted that awareness among the people about their entitlements, conditions and norms of service is extremely low.An assessment of the delivery of public services is carried out after analysing the user feedback. Among the seven selected services of the state, major dissatisfaction among the users was the delivery of the pension schemes.According to the report, the distance for 27 per cent of the pensioners from their homes to the post office or bank is less than a km, while for the rest, it is 2 to 3 km and 94 per cent of them get their pension by money orders.It was also revealed that only 27 per cent of the pensioners reported getting pension regularly, 64 per cent are getting their pension regularly. Just one per cent of the respondents knew the exact date, i.e. 7th of every month on which the pension is to be received.The report highlighted that an average of Rs 502 was spent by an individual to arrange for the documents to be enclosed with the application and among the pensioners who obtained the sanction letter during the last one year, 32 per cent of them paid an extra sum of Rs 543 on an average for getting the sanction letter.The report revealed that there is satisfaction with services ranging between 59 and 91 per cent and the highest score was made by Nemmadi Kendras while the lowest is accounted by the Pension Scheme.It also brought to the fore that there is some improvement in most of the services over the past two years. Among the four divisions, Belgaum and Mysore have received lower ratings for several service dimensions and overall satisfaction.
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