Face to face with our prevalent system

Friends, here is my face to face experience with government officials, babu's and their boss. Last year I was allotted a house in Lucknow by UP Awas Evam Vikas Parishad through lottery system. After the complete payment, they called for registration of land and the house. The house was supposed to be handed over by the end of Sept but it would take at least 1.5 month to get the possession.

I spent two days with these officials and it is my worst experience in life. Thanks to my brother (Dr Ramesh) who had completed all the formalities by often visiting the UPAVP office and still it took so much of trouble to get the registry (finally) done.

The days old system has not been revised since ages, no care taker knows his responsibilities, no one bothers to be on time, the real fun is to see that there's no one to question them. God knows how this system is working from last so many decades, boss comes at his own leisure and half of the time he is surrounded by his sycophants.

I reached UPAVP office at 10 AM in the morning, as you guessed it right, there was no one at work. I visited the site where houses were being built, I was hopeful that officials would start moving by around 11AM, but I was proved wrong. The person responsible for preparing my file arrived at around 12:30 hrs. Look at this man!!!! No one to question him or thrash him since the boss arrives at 13:30 Hrs... :-(

Some more ppl had come for their work and were frustrated as no one was heading any attention to resolve their problem. One person had applied for a house in 2007 and his name didn’t appear in lottery system, he came to receive his registration amount, his name didn’t appear in the bunch of list. He was asked to go to other babu.

Second person was refused of his registration amount as his name was crossed in the list, reason to find out that would be a time taking job for the babu, so he suggested him to visit again in the evening.

Third person was visiting everyday from last 10 days; the responsible babu was on holiday. The only reason for his visit was to get a final receipt of all his payments so that he can submit it to another babu and his file for registry can be prepared.

Several others came for query of their registration amount, for the application made in 2007 and no house was allotted to them in lottery system. They were asked to check their names in a thick spiral file. Once you found your name in the list, babu would interpret the status of your cheque that would also take around 20 mins to resolve one query.

My goodness who the heck says that computers can make life easy, see these ppl and u'll realise life is much easier without computers. I mean it is not their problem how many ppl visited the office, how many were satisfied, how many had to revisit for the same work etc. Just look at the pain and agony of those who are yet to receive their registration amount for an application made in 2007. All false promises being made to wait for another month and it will be delivered at home. I really want to understand, what is UPAVP doing with their registration amount?

All of the work is manual, maintenance of list, files, records etc. It is sheer waste of time and effort searching a name in a thick spiraled file, can't they prepare an excel sheet and update the status quickly. How difficult would it be?

My registry file was being prepared after a huge bargain, settlement amount was Rs 2000/- After this initial preparation of file, every person holding the file was supposed to be paid ranging from Rs 50/- to Rs 500/- If I fail to pay an amount nothing would be done and file wouldn’t move, it may also require several visits to UPAVP office.

Now after spending some time with govt officials I can classify the causes of corruption in following classes:-

1) Complexity of System:- It is very difficult to follow procedures and guidelines defined by the system. It is old age system that is coming from British Raaj and has not been revised. None of these are user friendly or can be followed in its true meaning.

Let me give you an instance of Complexity of System leading to System failure:-

A) I had to submit lot many documents and affidavit that was already submitted initially. The exercise was repeated, such as 1) getting a photo identity verified by a gazetted officer 2) An affidavit from court with exactly the same notes.

B) If you have bought a stamp paper of Rs 1000/- from govt treasury. The procedure to return back and withdraw the amount is next to impossible. The procedure is such that you cannot get the money or you'll end up paying more. First, you need to get a statement from your bank manager authorising you and your account in its branch. Secondly, you need to submit an affidavit. Thirdly, 10% amount of stamp would be deducted when you return it back. Last, you need to spend at least 4-5 days to get it approved from concerned authorities.

C) The buyer and the seller have to give fingerprints of all 10 fingers on one of the document, there is no way to check the validity of those fingerprints. In my case, the authority ( UPAVP) used only his 5 fingers for the fingerprints.

2) No Defined Guidelines: - There are no defined guidelines for an individual's responsibility. No One is aware of his duties and power, others who know it cannot exercise it due to one or the other reason.

Let me give an example:-

A) No one is on time; work is always treated as secondary. People are reluctant to take up any responsibility starting from babu to the manager. The manager works at his own will and is unclear of his own frame of work.

"Bhai yahan to ye nahin pata ki scene kaun sa hai aur movie kaun si chalni hai" atleast private offices are clear of their screen (area of work) and their movie (responsibility).

3) Personal attitude: - The failure to take up responsibility, to perform duty, tweaking the system for personal gain, misuse of power etc

Let's see some examples:-

A) I had paid all money taking loan from bank, all the formalities were completed even then the babu was reluctant to prepare my file and send it for final approval/signature.

B) Every step of work required hell lot of time, as if the whole world is sitting like a hen on egg.

C) Nothing would move without the min pay of Rs 50/-, of course there's no max limit

I have seen the working environment of software industry. Never have I witnessed such a pathetic style of working. We (s/w industry), for sure, are living in a different world. I agree with Mr. Nandan Nilekani that working with government authorities across different agencies is lot more difficult than anything else in this world. It is a lot more difficult to manage a govt responsibility than to manage a startup company.

This was just a glimpse of my two days, think about those who are victims of these offices. I have stated only about one office but I’m sure the same would be prevalent across all other govt offices. I could not elaborate much owing to the size limit of this blog but I would like to understand,

How can we take India to its pinnacle of success if this remains the condition? How can we change the mindset of individuals? How can we clean our own system? How can we satisfy our selfishness?

I'm sure one day the entire system would be revived. It would reduce hell lot of load of courts related to fraudulent cases. Computers would move in to make life easier and simpler. Inculcating good human values and quality education to our younger generation can bring a positive change.