Officially corrupt.

Karnataka has made it official. Until now civil servants were restricted from receiving any gift costing more than Rs 5000 in the case of officials in Groups A and B, Rs 2500 for officials in Group C and Rs 1250 for those at the bottom in group D. This was causing hardship so in a fit of kindness the state government has increased the quantum of gifts to the basic monthly salary of the recipient. Since salaries of these useless parasites were increased by 80% in the Sixth Pay Commission this makes a handsome New Year's present. Interestingly an officer can receive gifts from a friend if he has no official dealing with him. Since some of our brightest join the civil service because of the opportunity for enrichment it provides it will not take long for them to increase their list of " friends ". Officer A can accept a gift from his " friend " and pass it along under the table to Officer B who has official dealings with said " friend ". Best get all this sorted out before a Lokpal Bill is passed. In the UK Gary Dobson and David Norris have been found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence after 18 years. This was possible because of 4 years of painstaking forensic work which could match Stephen's DNA to a microscopic drop of blood and a strand of hair on the clothes of the 2 killers. A public inquiry after the first trial, in which the men were found not guilty, severely criticised the Metropolitan Police accusing it of institutional racism. Since then wide ranging changes have been carried out in policing. At least UK has a functioning justice system. Here in India previous telecom minister Sukh Ram, who was caught red handed with Rs 30 million stuffed in his mattress in 1996, is still enjoying freedom. Over 80 he will probably die of old age before judges wake up. Ramalinga Raju, who confessed to robbing his company, Satyam without any duress, is out on bail. Sir Conrad Black is in prison for the same crime of robbing Hollinger International. Bernie Madoff confessed a couple of months before Raju and is already serving 150 year sentence. It is best not to say anything about our judges because they have made themselves divine. And how. They have acquired a lethal weapon called " contempt of court " in which they act as prosecutor, jury and judge. A news channel has been asked to pay Rs 1 billion to a retired judge for mistakenly showing his picture on TV for a few seconds even though they apologized for 6 days on their programs. All " friends ".