Saturday, November 3, 2012

GO - An experience

Getting your work done with the government is not an easy task, for a commoner it is a daunting exercise where in a person has to move table to table wetting the greasy hands of the arrogant blood sucking monsters sitting across the table giggling and blabbering in a nonstop nonsense.

Though this wasn't the first time for me it was the first experience of small time corruption to my better half. It seems like taking bribe is in the blood of Indians itself. Lure of easy money is the only word for this kind of high handedness. There is no way one can stop such kind of corruption unless the attitude of people changes.

The day was Thursday when my passport which I received 5 days back was yet to complete the police verification which normally would take not less than 2 months due to the lethargic attitude of the bloody fools abusing and misusing the positions they hold in the government. I had to take leave and go sit in the police commissioner's office at 11 am. The boy in the front desk informed me that for my particular area of residence meet some Mr. X on Table 3. When we approached him he immediately started speaking in gujarati which I don't understand, very politely I asked him to speak in hindi and this arrogant *&%#$er says bring a translator with you. I smiled helplessly at his idiotic nature and thought getting my work done is most important. He asked us to wait until he calls for us.

There were several people moving in and out of the office while the blood sucking monsters were happily whiling away their time gossiping. There were two people who have visited Mr. X prior to us and one of them has just left and the other one was sitting sober listening to the unnecessary bakwas of that idiot looking helplessly helter skelter. There was a family of 5 children the guy seemed to be a labourer working in some foreign country who got his work done and was smiling.

Now comes my turn:

Mr. X Ek hi aadmi aao

Myself: Mujhe zaara police verification ka file chahiye to submit it at my area police station.

Mr. X: Ye mera kaam nahin hain par fir bhi karleta hun bahut risk uthake illegally. He was speaking in hindi but I will be putting those words in english here. It had to be done illegally and if I do it my job will be at risk. I asked him is there any other way he says yes and winks. I said please get it done because my wife is not normal so he started working on the PC and it took hardly 5 minutes to get the job done.

Meanwhile a higher official has walked into the room and everybody was on toes standing and saluting as if they are loyal to his highness. Blood *#$#rds. I think he spoke the same repetitive lines saying it was not his job and illegal to give me my file which would otherwise be lying for another 60 days. Then I took out a hundred rupee note and he said keep it with you I am going to give you for free at the risk of my life. I didn't understand why he was saying such words has the angel of kindness dawned upon him were my first thoughts, then after repeated attempts at denial i got to understand he wants notes of Rs. 500 and not 100s. But luck was on my side I had only three hundred and after some more persuasion he accepted the amount lest I was afraid he might create some trouble in giving me my files which was of utmost priority to me at that moment. On second thoughts he would helplessly harper on to my not giving him the bribe and do nothing but crib furthermore.

This was the first part only. The next office and official was in my area police station and the respected official sitting there for passport verification purpose.

The second part started at the police station where the concerned officer was disturbed from his afternoon nap by us. He was cordial enough to invite us inside and made us note the list of documents required for verification. I said we have all of them and are ready to submit but denied taking those now instead asked us to come at 5 PM in the evening when his partner reports for duty. I told him is it ok if my wife stays back then he took my wife's signature immediately...great relief.

I was there by 6PM and immediately process started and at the end as usual shamelessly he asked me for the fees. Surprisingly, it seems for regular inquiries which normally come in a span of 2 months he charges a minimum fee of Rs. 200. I had to shell out something more than that but definitely not the exorbitant amounts he was demanding for just doing my work which was supposed to be his duty.

How can we stop this kind of corruption when it is built in within the system? My proposal is a single window counter with different rates to be opened just like the system at tirupati and Salaries of government officers should have a fixed component and variable component where in variable depends on the number of works done by them in a day. That's only a measure to curb such kind of corruption it may not be a fail safe system but atleast commoners can be assured of service without owing to other measures of getting work done by these B*&^#y  GOs.

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