http://www.bangaloremirror.com/article/1/2009072820090728003353464262337f/No-more-bribes.html
Sahana Charan
Posted On Tuesday, July 28, 2009 at 12:33:53 AM
A group of residents at Sun City near the Sarjapur-Outer Ring Road junction
refuse to grease official palms to obtain khata, pay property tax and the like.
They used RTI to find out the status of their applications, forcing the
officials to act. It’s a model for the rest of Bangalore
In our society, where not many seem averse to corruption and think more about
comfort than virtue, the decision of a group of young Bangalore residents to go
against the grain is heartening.
Under the aegis of the Suncity Apartment Owners Association (SAOA), 250
residents of Suncity Apartments on the Sarjapur-Outer Ring Road junction have
paid their property tax for last year, and about 100 of them are in the process
of getting the khata of their apartment registered shortly, all without paying
a single paisa in bribe, either to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, the
Bangalore Development Authority or the revenue officials.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES
Not that it has been a hurdle-free journey. “At every step, we encountered
corrupt officials - from the beginning while taking the application to the last
stage of making the actual payment by demand draft - who wanted their share.
But we did not relent. This meant several trips to government offices and long
waits. But despite that, we are getting our work done honestly,” says Ashok
Dubey, one of the senior-most members in the association, who has made
innumerable trips to all the government offices for khata registration. “I have
been a government officer all my life and have never taken bribe from anyone;
so why should I resort to corruption now,” adds Dubey, who also initiated a
senior citizens club at Suncity which does a lot of welfare activities.
This success story has been put up on the website of the president of the
association, Hariprakash Agarwal (www.vicharpravah.com) and has got an
overwhelming response from residents from all over Bangalore, wanting to follow
in their footsteps.
RIGHT IS MIGHT
It all started one and a half years ago, when a group of new occupants of the
complex were faced with the problem of getting their khata registered. They
were faced with a situation of having to shell out at least Rs 25,000-30,000
just for getting the khata. That’s when Suncityites Vidyasagar, Harshad,
Sanjeev Suman, Renjith Chitharanajan and Dayanand, who had been running from
pillar to post to get the khata and had hit a wall, filed an RTI application
and asked the BBMP Commissioner to furnish details about the nature of their
khata application. After struggling for almost five months, they finally got
their khatas registered, without paying anything more than the prescribed
amount.
“That is when we decided that we should help other residents and make our
community free of corruption. Our aim was to put across the message that we
should not pay a hefty amount to get something that is rightfully ours,” says
Vidyasagar Magdum, treasurer of SAOA.
SAOA also organised a camp in their premises for khata registration with the
help of local MLA Satish Reddy, who has been a supporter of their cause. Of
course, they were faced with corrupt officials even at the camp, apart from
resistance from residents who wanted to take the easy way out, but they stood
their ground. “The result is that we are in the process of getting at least 150
khata applications cleared in the first phase and will start the process for
more shortly,” says Dubey. The same approach has been taken for getting
electricity bills transferred and paying property tax.
THE WAY FORWARD
The group has now joined hands with other resident associations in the area and
are in the process of forming the Bellandur-Iblur Residents Association, which
will have a sub-committee specifically for bribe-free khata registration. “Till
now, we had accepted malpractices as a way of life; it’s time to change that,”
says Dubey.
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