- Bribe Fighter
- 12 years ago
- 1067 views
Black money by not issuing receipts
There's a stretch of parking area for two wheelers in front of the R.T.Nagar post office in Bangalore. You can park for about 20 meters from the post office, but after 20m, there's a no parking sign which says that from that point onward till 300m, it is a no parking zone. Funny thing is, the no parking sign (although visible to anyone who looks upward) is behind the metal barriers of the footpath, and high up. So anyone who brings their two wheeler there will not see the sign, and since vehicles are already parked in the 20m stretch, the rest of the area will also look like a parking area. Others like me, will see bikes already parked there and park within one empty area where a bike had just vacated (being completely unaware that it is a no parking zone).
The traffic police tows away two wheelers from this place regularly. They take it not to a police station, but near a bus stand few kilometers away, where a polite person supervises the bikes. By the time vehicle owners find out where their bike is and go to that man, they're asked to show their DL and pay Rs.300. If you pay it to him, he can't issue a receipt. So you have the choice of either paying without a receipt or waiting for the traffic cop to return in the towing vehicle to give you a receipt. I decided to wait. I had to wait for more than an hour and in the meantime few people came by and collected their bikes by paying the money without taking a receipt.
The traffic cop eventually came and was polite with me. He gave me proper receipts for the Rs.300.
I have two observations:
1. Those who didn't take a receipt, could have indirectly being paying a bribe, as the money was not necessarily being tracked (assuming 10 vehicles towed per day, that's a lot of money).
2. The area near the post office is a regular money generating place. If the cops really didn't want people to park there and when they're seeing so many violations everyday, they should have put more obvious signs and instructions there, rather than simply keep towing vehicles away.