Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Saturday @ RTO Office

After a long time I had to go to a government office in an official work. I wanted to pay the road tax for my vehicle in Bangalore. After going there, In a few minutes I realized, its just not the government which is getting huge amount of money in terms of registration of vehicle or road tax from vehicles, but it helped many people around it to earn the livelihood. Just to describe, when i entered the office, I saw chaos all over. Bunch of files around. People are queued in front of officials to get their work done. After moving two to three counters, finally i found an officer who suppose to be doing my work. The first question I asked how much money I have to pay as tax for my vehicle. The answer was: Get your documents verified first, come with all the documents then only I'll tell you how much money you have to pay (What the hell !!!, why should i fill all the documents for just knowing how much money i need to pay ??). As there was no information on the wall also which i can use to calculate the tax myself, So I had to follow the instructions from the respected officer.
                                   Then I went to another officer for getting my docs verified, he gave me some forms and all those forms were in completely written in Kannada Language (local language), I just asked him, can i get a form which is in English, then he told me to go to a bookshop where I can get a form which is in written in English. I found the book shop, then i had to buy the same form again. I can infer that there is a collusion between those govt. official and bookshop owner as the guy is selling a govt form while the office does not have the same. There were some guys who were doing some typing job, as i did not want to make any mistake in the form, I just asked them whether they can type the form for me (as it is routine work for them), he said that to fill the forms, he need Rs. 50. I said thank you. 

                               After carefully filling the forms, I went to ask the amount of money which I have to pay as tax. Then the officer told me to get a file along with a tag and enclose all the documents in that. I again rushed to nearby book store and bought a file and some more xeroxed documents, and went to the officer. Then again asked the same question. The officer scanned the documents thrice (without any reason) as if I have written some suicide note in that. I was getting irritated for all these non sense, for just to know the amount I had to do all these drama. Rubbing salt to the wound, the officer is also clarifying doubts of other fellas who are in queue with me instead of telling me "HOW MUCH TAX SHOULD I PAY". Finally she took out her calculator, and did some math and science and arrived at a figure Rs.7000. Then I asked what should I do after paying this amount ??? Then she said, that person in cash counter will tell you what should you do. :) 

                                I thought, my vehicle is almost 3 years old. When I bought it, I had paid around 8000 registration cost and again after 3 years, I again have to pay 7K !!!! Some math and science was running in my mind. Then I went to cash counter. The counter was closed by 12:30 PM. I was late by just 10 minutes. And 2nd half is off as today is Saturday. I was so frustrated and irritated that I decided, I wont pay life time tax.  Then I went to near by HDFC Bank to request for change of my address. It was post 1'O clock on Saturday. They gave me a simple form and took my PAN card to get it xeroxed and my request was taken. I just filled the form and handed over to them. My work is done in 10 minutes as few customer were there ahead of mine. 
                              So to conclude, In a government office of one of the most hi-tech city in the world a person has struggle for 2 hours and still his work is not done. From this you can guess how the situation would be in other towns, villages. It does not matter you stay in Metros like Delhi, Bangalore or Mumbai. Government offices still rules in the same way.

1 comment:

  1. nice experience dude...This is India...don't blame Govt. officials, we all are equally responsible for it. Hope, everything will be privatized one day...

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