There is great celebration in India in, what is seen as, a victory for Anna Hazare. The parliament has accepted the 3 points, stressed by Hazare, for inclusion into the draft Lok Pal bill. But does this mean that these 3 points will be part of the final bill or a strong bill will be passed? Not if the criminal politicians or the thieving civil servants can help it. The politicians at least are known to the people and may be vulnerable to pressure but the civil service is a shadowy web of corruption spreading through every branch of government, its immense power lying in its intimate knowledge of the obscure rules and a strong support system bred from a strong sense of brotherhood. It is an evil shadow stretching from coast to coast and influencing every aspect of our lives. Over the years they have built up an extremely lucrative system of insurmountable harassment to force the people to pay extra money for any service, be it a driving licence or a building permit, which generates unknown billions of rupees for these scoundrels and they will fight to the last to protect their earnings. There are millions of civil servants and no ombudsman, however strong, can possibly keep them under check. There are not enough prisons in the whole world to imprison these criminals. The only way is to hamstring the villains in a way that they will find it hard to harass us. Pass a law which prescribes a strict time limit for every service. Every application must be answered by a named officer within, say, one month and reason will be given in writing for acceptance or rejection. Any discrepancy to be immediately punished by cut in salary. Excise the cancer.