Mysore/Mysuru: Society is responsible for the present corruption and such conditions in the State and National level, regretted former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde.

He was speaking after inaugurating the D. Devaraj Urs birth anniversary celebration and ‘Ursu Adarsha Bhushana’ award presentation function organised by D. Devaraj Urs Prathime Pratishtapana Samithi at University of Mysore’s Rani Bahadur auditorium yesterday.

“In the early days, people used to stay away from those who had come out of jail. This had caused fear to commit crime. But now, those who come out of jail are garlanded and taken in a procession. There is no reward for honesty and those who speak about honesty are seen as mad people. It is only greed which is seeing development,” regretted former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice.

Pointing out that society cannot be changed even through law, Santosh Hegde said that neighbouring country China hangs those accused in corruption after the allegations are proved, but in India, it is only seven years imprisonment. “Honesty should be first instilled among us and it should reach our future generations. We should never expect the fruit for ourselves and we should build a better society for the future generations,” he added.

On the occasion, MLC A.H. Vishwanath and MyLAC Chairman Raghu R. Kautilya were presented with ‘Ursu Adarsha Bhushana’ awards. MLA Tanveer Sait, who was also selected for the award could not make it due to illness.

Former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, who too spoke, said that during his tenure as a Speaker, he had to take some tough decisions and had to disqualify A.H. Vishwanath.

“But now I am felicitating him. Though myself and Vishwanath met each other many times since then, he (Vishwanath) never became angry on me. We both are the disciples of D. Devaraj Urs, hence Vishwanath did not speak anything against me,” he said.

Varsity Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar presided. Samithi Hon. President M. Chandrashekar, President Zakir Hussain, Congress leader N.M. Naveen Kumar and others were present.