The official's remarks support the findings of the latest Global Corruption Barometer by Transparency International
NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - The process of recruitment in the Indian police force is mired in corruption with candidates unable to get jobs unless money is paid, the country's home secretary was quoted as saying by the Times of India on Tuesday.
Gopal K. Pillai, who is the interior ministry's top bureaucrat, said he had no doubt that policemen were "abused and degraded," but that corruption at the recruitment level needed to end.
"In almost every state ... police recruitment is mired in corruption," the newspaper quoted Pillai saying in speech at the Bureau of Police Research and Development in New Delhi.
"People do not get recruited as constables and sub-inspectors unless money is paid and, therefore, the first level at which you have to stop corruption is at this recruitment process."
Transparency International's Global Corruption Barometer earlier this month found that 74 percent of Indians surveyed felt the level of corruption had increased in the last three years.
As in many countries surveyed, the police in India were seen as being one of the most corrupt institutions along with political parties, the report added.
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