Karnataka most corrupt state, Andhra, TN, Maharashtra next in line: Study

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People in Karnataka faced corruption the most in accessing public services, a think-tank has claimed, based on its survey in 20 states.

The Centre for Media Studies (CMS) today released its 11th round of the the annual corruption study -- 'CMS India Corruption Study 2017' -- here today.

According to the survey, "77 per cent of respondents" in Karnataka said they experienced corruption in accessing public services.

"This is followed by Andhra Pradesh (74 per cent), Tamil Nadu (68 per cent), Maharashtra (57 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (44 per cent) and Punjab (42 per cent)," it says.

The survey was conducted over the last one year covering 20 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Punjab, and more than 3,000 households from both rural and urban areas.

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

The Chairman of CMS, N Bhaskara Rao, said, "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."

"In 2005, the more corrupt states were Bihar (74 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (69 per cent) Odisha (60 per cent), Rajashthan (59 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (59 per cent)," 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 per cent opined that graft had increased in that period 21 per cent felt it had remained the same," the survey said.

Rao said while the level of perception of corruption has gone down, the factors associated with graft has "remained almost unchanged", which is a sad commentary on the country that has completed 70 years of its Independence.