- Bribe Hotline
- 14 years ago
- 2029 views
I HAVE TO REGISTER SALE DEED.BUT I DO NOT WANT TO PAY BIRIBE. PL GUIDE ME
There is no need for you to pay a bribe. Please go to the registration department’s website, at http://www.karigr.org/citizen/default.htm.
Here you can download the citizens charter of the registration department. Do you in know in how much time the sub registrar has committed to complete your transaction? 2 hours 20 minutes! 20 minutes to verify the market value of property, 1 hour for Preliminary scrutiny of documents, enclosures and issue of Form No.1A.
and one hour for admission of documents, recording signatures etc. Please print out the citizens charterand carry it with you. Let us see how many officials will disregard their own departments citizens charter! They have no discretion to refuse to undertake a registration, if your papers are in order.
One practical minded individual has sent us some very interesting rules to avoid being asked for a bribe and one of the things he says is as follows:
(1) Do your homework before you approach a government office for anything. For example, go to the website of the department concerned, spend a little time understanding the rules and regulations. If the department has FAQs, please read them thoroughly. If the department has a citizens charter under which they commit to complete a particular job within a specific time, then carry this with you.
(2) Do not set out to do something illegal. For instance, if you are buying a property, or a flat, it is better to buy it with money paid by cheque.
(3) Do not go to middlemen. In almost every transaction, there are middlemen who operate, such as builder’s agents, touts in the sub-registrar’s office. Avoid them.
(4) If somebody tries to approach you to pay a bribe, please take the following approach:
(a) Do not be submissive. Look confident. Look him in the eye. Ask him for his name, call him by his name. Do not call him –‘sir’. Be polite but do not show unnecessary respect. Be firm and confident.
(b) Tell him clearly what you want and that you are applying in the prescribed format. Also tell him that you suspect that things will move only if you pay a bribe. Tell him very clearly, that you will not pay a bribe.
c) If he asks you for money, then loudly, so that others also hear what you are saying, say that you will give him a bribe only if he gives you a receipt. Or make it very clear that you will not pay him one paisa.
(5) Try to tackle the government officers as a group, never alone. People in corrupt offices get a little worried when you go as a group.
(6) Be patient, when faced with delaying tactics. When an official is consistently unavailable in office, leave a letter that says (for example) that we came to visit the official at the time and date specified but that he was not available. Please also say that his assistant told us to come again on another date (to be specified). Such letters will make the official feel that he must take special care of your work – that we are people he must not trifle with. In case there are people who are obviously jumping the queue, make a big fuss about it. Say that you are going to complain to higher officials.
(7) Do not submit any applications or papers, without obtaining a written acknowledgment that such papers have been submitted.
(8) Do not accept any oral instructions from any government official.If any government official speaks of a procedure, that you do not know of or is not in the rule book, then ask him to show the government rule under which he is dealing with any application that you make. If he does not do so, you must (a) write a letter saying that they demanded these papers and seek to know the written instructions under which these are mandatory. (b) If there is no response, file RTI applications to find our whether such a written instruction exists. (c) Use RTI Act to find out whether such papers have been demanded from other applicants.in this regard.
A hint here: It we are asked to bring some additional papers, and then an official offers to do the work without these additional papers for a bribe, then it is conclusive proof that such papers are unnecessary in the first place.
(8) Talk about going to senior officials of the department, as also the Lokayukta too, with a complaint, in case your work is not done. Please mention the names of higher officials. Most people who engage in petty corruption are also cowards! They will immediately do the work.
(9) Also be ready to send complaints to the public grievance cell (also available for many departments on their websites) with all details. Do this on a weekly basis, till people do your work.
(10) Carry recording instruments; even a mobile will do. Every conversation will be recorded and then documented, including time and day. (This might be considered a little tedious – but this is very useful, because we all tend to forget very quickly, what was said).
The purpose of the above steps is two fold
(a) These improve our confidence, knowledge and negotiating ability
(b) it disrupts the normal behaviour pattern to which corrupt people are used. They expect you to be unsure and confused when you visit an office. By going there confidently, in a group and speaking bluntly as one, we are disrupting their pattern and making the conversation run according to our pattern. We control the conversation! Once you do all this, most officials back off and immediately do your work. They are always afraid of knowledgeable people.
(11) You can also have some fun by trying some Gandhigiri. It has been known to work. Please read the posting - why corruption exists, some observations- which speaks of how an individual successfully resisted payment of a bribe for registering a property in Bangalore. Basically, he was repeatedly asked to wait. When finally he was asked for a five thousand rupees in a somewhat menacing voice, our friend who has posted the story told him that he would insist on paying ten thousand rupees into the Kargil fund - five thousand from the official and five thousand as a contribution from our friend who has made the post. The officer demanding the bribe felt ashamed and said he did not want the money but it was his boss who insisted on it. Our poster then assured him that he would be very happy to give another five thousand from his boss to the Kargil fund. The next morning, the ashamed officers handed over the initial document accepting the submission. You can see the entire story on this website under the heading - I didnt pay a bribe.