New Delhi, Apr 8: Against the backdrop of an anti-graft campaign spearheaded by Anna Hazare, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today admitted that corruption has hit the poor and favoured steps to effectively tackle this menace.
“It is not sufficient to have good intentions and good policies. They have to be implemented and acted upon. That requires collective efforts,” he said while addressing the CII National Conference.
The minister pointed out that “governance failures and corruption in the system” had hit the poor the most and added, “an inclusive development agenda cannot succeed without addressing these issues”.
“It is evident that the fruits of growing prosperity are not being enjoyed equally by all our citizens. There are gaps in our development efforts and in our governance practices, ...across sectors and in different regions and segments of the country,” Mukherjee said.
According to the finance minister, the country's economic development should be more holistic to bring about sustained improvement in living standards across masses, including access to affordable healthcare and social security, among other things.
“It is equally important that the available public resources are effectively used. We are acutely conscious that if these resources have to bear fruit, we will have to tackle issues of governance and service delivery,” he added. The government has formed a ministerial panel on corruption, headed by Mukherjee, which is deliberating inclusion of various features in Lokpal bill to tackle corruption.
Mukherjee said every Indian nurses the belief of a better future and added, “The possibility of realising the promise of our destiny as a developed nation is, perhaps for the first time in our modern history, well within our reach”. Since 2003-04, India is registering high economic growth, which is likely at over 9 per cent in 2011-12.
Talking about various initiatives like right to information, work and education taken by the government, the minister said the government was working on the draft Food Security Bill for guaranteeing the right to food.
He also called upon the industry and corporate to play more active role in development of the country. PTI
