Is there anywhere else I can post this so that it has some effect? I wouldn't think so because I am not going to tell something that no one else knows; every citizen who has gone to a government office will tell you stories. A percentage of the property registration cost being asked as registration fee is valid. But another percentage being asked as bribe, is ridiculous. Why would anyone register for the full amount if he knows that some percentage of it has to go to feed the mouths of totally unrelated people. It doesn't stop here.Let us take the property processes in Bangalore for example. After registration, you need to get the name transfer called Khatha done for which the fee is around 500 but the bribe is 2000. CMC (City Municipal Corporation) was taken over by BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike) last year. So, you need to get this Khatha converted. The fee for this is around 1000, but the bribe is 5000. To build a house you need to get a plan approval, the fee for which can go up to 5000, but you have to pay 20000. For an electricity connection, the fee is 1000, but you will have to pay 5000. Even to get something as small as an encumbrance certificate for which the fee cannot go more than 500, you will have to pay at least 1000.
I have only gone that far, I don't know how much more I will have to shell out to fill all those corrupt vacuums that come my way in the future. All this bribe not to get some work done beyond what is legal and beyond what comes under the normal operations of the officers; these are just the fully legal routine tasks. At the end of all this, still no road and no water! Can nothing be done about all this? It's a shame that Gandhi has to adorn all the Indian currency notes.
Just a thought. Don't get angry here. Did you give a thought to how much you earn and how much that government servant earns? If the government was paying them well, then PROBABLY these bribes might go down.....just MAYBE...not sure though.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you. In fact, I'm almost a communist myself when it comes to such discussions.
ReplyDeleteHowever I would like to find two things:
1. If they earn so much lesser than me, I don't want to see them richer than me out of the money earned through bribes.
2. I don't want to witness a "Do it if you can without bribe" arrogance when I go to a government office. If my papers are proper and I'm willing to wait, I want to get my work done without bribe.
Yesterday I heard an even shocking truth from a cab driver of a well-known software company in Bangalore. He said each cab driver has to bribe 1000 out of the small money he receives as salary, to the company's transport supervisors. Atrocious!
Looks like this pest has percolated from government to the corporate, or may be it was always there everywhere.
Taking a bribe can never be justified - so what if they make less money, they are free to go somewhere else where they are compensated better.
ReplyDelete-Route
Don't get me started about RTO & RPO (transport & passport). To a certain extent, I agree with Ram.. disparate salaries are one of the reasons. It's not because their job profile means low paying, it is because the govt has not taken the right steps. The only bill that passes without any disputes in both the houses is the MP/MLA salary revision bill.
ReplyDeletefafu,
ReplyDeleteKhata transferukku 5000 bribe thaan kodutiyaaa?? enna yematitanga.. i gave 8000/-
no fafu, i think i spent more than u. they made a spelling mistake and i had to pay more to correct that.
ReplyDeleteyou'll have to bribe both for making them do their work and for making them correct their own mistakes. "ridiculous" is the most decent term i'm finding.
thank god, i learnt to read kannada a bit.
Ramp, actually what you raised is a very valid concern. Thinking about what could be done ... if the govt really doesn't have money to increase the wages, I actually don't mind paying an extra "cess" on my tax for the sake of it. Probably we should name it the "Bribery Abolition Cess"?
ReplyDelete