[Reader-list] In RTO, a licence for corruption

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Taraprakash,

I am still not convinced about giving competence of data gathering
agencies. Please read the story below for more.

Best

Taha


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Nagpur/In_RTO_a_licence_for_corruption/articleshow/3898438.cms
 The Times of India. Nagpur Edition
In RTO, a licence for corruption
27 Dec 2008, 0111 hrs IST, Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN


In the year 2000, MLA Devendra Fadnavis had exposed the corruption at
the regional transport office
(RTO) Nagpur when he 'managed' to get two
driving licences issued. The first was in the name of a dead man. The
second licence — intended to be a political barb — was made for the
then chief minister, without the CM being present for the mandatory
driving test.

However, a sting operation by TOI in August revealed that things have
failed to change even after eight years. The trail of corruption
continues in a more organised way in the RTO office which has been
virtually taken over by touts, enabling any person to obtain as many
number of duplicate licences by bypassing all rules.

In the second week of July, my boss called me and narrated a mishap in
Mumbai in which three persons were crushed to death by a rashly driven
truck. When the driver was arrested, police seized nine driving
licences from him. This exposed the corrupt affairs in Mumbai RTO
office. Taking a cue from this incident, he asked me to check if I
could get a duplicate licence issued in my name even though I very
much had the original licence.

When I went to the RTO office, I was greeted at the entrance by a
tout. I told him that I wanted a duplicate licence and lied that I had
lost my original one. He asked me to bring a copy of the police
complaint for the misplaced licence. "If that's not possible," he
said, "it would cost you Rs 500." The official charges to get a
duplicate licence are Rs 200. I protested that Rs 500 was too much.

The broker gave me a neat break-up. "If you stand in the long queue,
it'll take time and the RTO staff will ask you copy of FIR. If you go
through me, it'll be easy. Out of Rs 500, I hardly get Rs 100, after
paying Rs 150 to the woman at the counter for out-of turn clearance of
forms. Rs 200 is paid towards smart card
fee besides Rs 50 to the computer clerk at the thumb impression
counter for early processing of cases."

I trusted the broker, who has a pucca shop at the RTO gate, and gave
him Rs 500. He promised to deliver the licence in two days and asked
me to come around 4 pm for the thumb impression and photograph. Due to
load-shedding, I had to visit twice for this. The RTO staff hardly
works for four hours as the office doesn't have a generator.

The next day, the broker made me stand in a long queue despite
promising otherwise. But even then, it took him almost 25 days to get
me the licence as against the couple of days he had sworn.

Frustrated by the affairs, I finally told him I was a journalist and
that I would now take my duplicate licence directly from the RTO. The
broker was shocked. He grabbed me by the hand and took me to the woman
clerk, who issues licences and told her about me. Stunned, she said,
"Why did you approach him? You could have directly come to me."
However, all said and done, I got my licence in 10 minutes. The next
day, I went to officiating RTO Raj Bagri and offered to surrender the
duplicate licence. He returned it saying it was of no use to the RTO.
I told him the entire story. He laughed and could only say, "It's a
worrying factor."

There were brokers who were ready to issue even more than two licences
to me. In the huge scale of corruption in our country, getting a
duplicate licence issued fraudulently may not seem like a big deal.
Until, that is, you remember that the hijackers of the Air India
flight from Kathmandu in 1998 had also obtained their bogus passports
on the strength of the driving licence procured through touts.

Scary, isn't it?

(While covering transport, Vijay Pinjarkar often goes the extra mile)