Corruption has infested people's lives like termites, govt taking steps to end it: PM

New Delhi: Corruption has infested the lives of people in the country like termites and the Union government, with the continuous help of technology, is taking various steps to get rid of it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday. "My dear countrymen, you know it very well that corruption and nepotism have hurt our country beyond imagination and they have infiltrated our lives like termites. We are trying continuously to throw them out," Modi said in his Independence Day speech.

India has got some success in rooting out corruption, but the disease is so deep and widespread that everyone has to continuously try at every level -- not just at the level of the government -- to end it, he said. "All the work may not be over in one attempt. Bad habits and old diseases get cured sometimes but then such a disease makes a comeback whenever it gets an opportunity," the prime minister said. He also said,"Corruption is a disease and to defeat it, we have taken certain steps by using technology continuously." At every level, the Centre is trying continuously that values like honesty and transparency are given a boost, Modi added.

"You must have seen that in the last five years, and even now when the government has come back, many people who have been sitting in the government have been asked to leave," the prime minister said. "Those who were obstructing us in this movement, we told them that you should do your own business, and now this country does not require your services anymore," he said. This was Modi's first Independence Day address to the nation in his second term from the ramparts of the Red Fort and the sixth consecutive Independence Day speech.

The prime minister also mentioned corruption in the context of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. He said, "The system that prevailed over the past seventy years had aggravated separatism and given birth to terrorism. It had encouraged dynastic rule and in a way strengthened the foundations of corruption and discrimination." On August 5, the Centre stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its special status given under the Article 370 of the Constitution and split it into two Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, which will come into existence on October 31.