A top Finance Ministry advisor said on Thursday that merely arresting people will not solve the problem of corruption, as the whole issue needs to be tackled in a systematic manner."Corruption management is so much like management of economy. . . .It is not just a question of catching people and putting them behind the bars. . . though it should be done," Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.
His remarks come a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested LIC Housing Finance chief executive officer Ramachandran Nair and seven other senior bankers for colluding with Mumbai-based Money Matters Ltd to sanction large corporate loans to real estate developers without due diligence and adherence to other mandatory conditions for granting approvals.
The strategy to deal with corruption has to be linked with other activities, Basu said, adding that sending officials to chase corrupt persons would not solve the problem 'as they (officers chasing the corrupt)
themselves tend to get corrupt'.
The government, Basu said, needs to deal with the issue in such a manner that economic activities are not effected.
"You have to balance between bringing economic activity to a halt and controlling corruption," he said, adding that some countries 'foolishly' tried to tackle corruption by halting economic activity.
Basu further said that had the housing finance scam broken out six months earlier, he could have included corruption as one of the topics on the agenda for a two- conference on inclusive development being organised by the Finance Ministry on November 30 and December 1.
