Defence Minister A K Antony has called upon the people to take an anti-corruption pledge and desist from bribing officials to get their work done.

“We should take a pledge against corruption,” he said in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday after launching Kerala government’s ‘Poverty-Free’ scheme under which rice at Rs one per kg will be given to BPL families.

It is a matter of concern that it has become a normal practice to bribe officials for getting benefits of government schemes.

“People think that for getting government benefits, they have to grease the palm of officials,” the minister said.

In an apparent reference to Anna Hazare’s fast, the Congress leader said people’s anger against corruption has generated in many forms in the country.

Though India had achieved progress in many fields after independence and had become a world economic power, the country still had two tiers – one shining India and the other where people live in poverty, he said.