- I Paid A Bribe
- 11 years ago
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A person applying for documents under the Sakala scheme of the State…
- Revenue
- Property Tax
- Paid INR 15,000
A person applying for documents under the Sakala scheme of the State government will now get a token at sub-registrar’s offices in Dakshina Kannada district.
Karnataka Sakala Services Act (Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act), which ensured timely delivery of documents to the applicants, has been facing hurdles due to the failure of the government in keeping track of the implementation of the scheme in the district. The Act had ensured opening of a counter in every government office to serve the public. But sub-registrar’s offices do not have such counters, as most of them closed down due to shortage of computers and staff, which led to delay in the services. The offices now use a token system.
Social rights activist Ravi Bangera said there is no option of issuing tokens under the Act. “The time for processing the applications at the sub-registrar’s office is only a day, but the officials take more than 15 days due to the token system,” he added.
He also pointed out that the token system is part of the corruption in the office. Only those who can afford to give bribes would get a token that would get them the documents at the earliest. The poor people or a first-time visitor to the sub-registrar’s office has to wait for one month or more. Advocate Santhosh said the state government had intended to prevent corruption in its offices by introduction the Act. But the officials have implemented the token system to continue with their corruption agenda, he alleged.
According to official sources, the token system was introduced to avoid the responsibilities under the Sakala Services Act. “As a number of applications pour in at the office everyday, the officials give tokens to the applicants and later register their applications under Sakala to avoid penalty,” the sources added.
Sub-registrar Raghuram from Mangalore office said: “There is a severe shortage of computers to accept the application. That is why we issue tokens.”
Inspector General of Registration Adoni Syed Saleem said the problems related to the computers will be solved in two months.