good motoring
Efficient touts
H.Kishie Singh
The
Registration and Licencing Authority (R&LA) has always been
a pain in the neck. A visit to get your licence renewed, to pay
vehicle tax or to get your car registered can be a humiliating
and exasperating experience. Humiliating because of the rudeness
of the staff. They will happily tell you that if you don’t
like the service or standing in line, you should have stayed
home. And exasperating because you are sent from one window to
the other, made to wait for no good reason, and the final result
is that you are obliged to go back the next day and the next.
Three or four trips to renew a licence which is a 30-minute job.
This means that senior citizens, physically challenged and
office-goers have to reserve three to four days for a simple
job. There is a reason for this behaviour by the staff. If they
discourage the public, it will be obliged to deal with touts.
Here is an
incident that happened with me. I drove into the parking lot
opposite the R&LA office in Sector 17. As I was paying the
parking fee and before I could get out of the car, a man
approached me. "Good morning sahib, what brings you
here?" asked the man. "I am here to renew my driver’s
licence", I told him. "And I am here to help you"
he says. "Please wait in your car." He pulled out his
cell phone and gave some instructions. "Sir, I need two of
your photographs. I will get your licence for you." I
thought for a moment and reluctantly handed over two
photographs. "Please allow me to get you a soft drink while
you wait," he said.
Just about then a
man came along with a Red Cross file and the papers required to
renew a licence, all neatly filed, and says to me: "Just
sign at the dotted marks on this file, Sir. There is nothing
more for you to do. And please give Rs 500. Kindly come back one
week from now. And, so sorry sahib, then you will have go inside
to be photographed!"
As simple as that.
I did not have to even get out of my car. It was drive-in
service. A kind of home delivery that would make a pizza parlour
envious.
I returned a week
later and sure enough my file was complete with all formalities.
"Go to window number 8 and pay the fee. Then have your
photograph taken and give me the receipt, Sir. I will deliver
the licence to your house". I went to window number 8 and I
was through in minutes. I have been to window number 8 on many
occasions before and always the babu has found some fault with
the documents.
As I entered the
R&LA office, there was a rouges’ gallery at the entrance.
Mug shots and a warning that these men were agents. "They
have given statement that they will not visit this office again.
This is for public information, please". True, they do not
visit the office. They operate from the parking lot. The touts
work with efficiency and, obviously, it is in connivance with
the staff. Why can’t the staff work honestly and efficiently?
A few days later I
went to pay road tax for my Gypsy. The system is mind-boggling
and could only have been designed by a bureaucrat. Its chief
objective is to harass and waste hours of time. Here is how it
works. You go to the R&LA office in Sector 17. Stand in line
to get your forms and file cover. Having got them, you go to the
window upstairs. The babu tells you: "Form number XX is
missing". Go back downstairs, stand in line and collect the
missing form. Ok, file complete, back upstairs. The same babu
tells you to go to the treasury branch which is a kilometre
away, near the parade ground. The babu here at the treasury
branch gives you a contact where you will have to pay money.
This can only be done at the SBI branch in Bank Square, at the
other end of Sector 17. Stand in line again and pay your money.
Happy motoring!
|