Commitment by I.G.R.
Inspector General of Registration and Commissioner of Stamps
in Karnataka, Sri D. Sathya Murthy, L.A.S., presented lead papers for discussion
at the national ICT Consultative Workshop organized by NIRD, Hyderabad on 24th
to 26th Feb. 2003. The papers deal with the "KAVERI" an e-govermance
project of registration and stamps department for common man in Karnataka.The papers deal in detail the rampant corruption prevalent
in registering department, the modus operandi of corruption, the people
involved in corruption.
The following is the extract from lead papers:
It is a common knowledge that the Sub-registra'rs Officers in the state have become notorious as dens of corruption. As the
corruption which occurs in Sub-Registrar's offices will be mostly collusive corruption, where the giver of bribe as well as taker of the bribe would not
be ready to complain against each other,in the matter it would not be that
easy to secure evidence in relation to such activity.
In many cases the officers and the personnel in
Sub-Registrar's Offices are involving outsiders to help the bribe giver and
the bribe taker in relation to their bribing trans- actions, to identify the
Officers and officials of the Sub-Registry involved in bribe -taking and bribe
giving, becomes much more difficult. SubRegistrar's Officers, although
they are regarded by the Public as dens of corruption in which corruption is
made the way of life of the officers and officials of the Sub-Registry, hiring volunteers, the document writers and stamp vendors for the purpose."
(Lokayuktha)
HARRASMENT TO PUBLIC
Corruption has become a inevitable proposition in the
Department. General Public believes that nothing moves without greasing the
officials. In addition to that there is lot of secrecy that is surrounded
around the property valuations though they are more of an open issue.The local
committees constituted for this purpose review these rates once in three years
and they are published either locally or through gazette.The confidence level of the public with the department are
very low and they do not feel comfortable to approach the Sub-Registrar on
their own without they help of the middle man.
The behavior of most of the SubRegistrars is also highly
objectionable as neither they are courteous nor helpful in dealing with the
public. Their attitude is of making money irrespective of any customer and
they have no discrimination between the poor and the rich. There are instances
where they had been so blatant in demanding money even from reputed journalists
and police officers despite disclosing their identities. Some of the
sub-registrars went to the extent of stating that they need to pay all the
masters and therefore, they need to be paid. Most of them have callous,
insensitive and indecent behavioral attitudes which compounds the problem.
Once they sit in the chair, they loose their senses and the private business approach dawns in their minds.
Added to this is the problem of volunteers. Volunteers
system had taken deep roots since more than a decade and they had been
functioning literally as officials of the department without any locus
standi. Most of these volunteers are either retired employees of the department
or the relations of the present serving employees of the department which ac-
counts for the large number.
The remaining number is due to political influence
who are basically unemployed and had found out the volunteer job as a
means to earn quick money. The real problematic sections of volunteers are
the goondas and the criminals from the land dealers section who are not only
rich but also who can afford to use their muscle power to harass the public and
squeeze the money. There is also another section which belongs to the close
kith and kin of the serving ministers and kinds of corruption.
Administrative
corruption.
The corruption in the department mainly falls into this
category of
administrative corruption. The last but not the least is the
category of Deed writer, stamp vendors and typists who wait and watch the
innocent citizens. This needs to be further classified into: According to Rule
Corruption and Against the Rule Corruption.
According to Rule
Corruption
According to Rule corruption is a smaller phenomenon, where
the bribes are collected despite all the papers being in order. This is an
amount demanded directly and the public pays this as a token of safety as they
do not like to face any problems in the future. Most of the cor- ruption
related to the search and issuance of Encumbrance certificates falls in this category. The corruption at the level of peon, who takes the thumb impression
also falls into this category. There are many instances, where the peon does
not leave the thumb until his bribe of Rs.50/- to 100/- is paid, though they
admit it is only Rs.10/- to 20/- only.
Against the Rule
Corruption:
This is a major problematic area.The Sub-Registrars and the
District Registrars enjoy discretionary powers which are often misused. There
are areas which range from interpretation of the Acts, circulars issued and
raising objections on the documents presented. On the guidance values is
another issue which is also a source of massive corruption. The audit had
clearly shown that there are glaring omissions on the part of the
subregistrars while calculating the stamp duty and registration duty,where
the property locations are wrongly and deliberately shown at lesser prices. The against rule includes cases like allowing registrations where they are
prohibited under the law in the light of public policy and non insistence of IT
clearances etc and buildings being shown as vacant sites etc.
Collusive Corruption:
Hon'ble Lokayukta had already stated that the corruption in
this department is of the nature of collusive corruption, where neither bribe
taker nor the giver is willing to complain. Mostly the collusive corruption is
due to the involvement of the volunteers. This is not only existing in
Karnataka but also common in the other States. States like Maharashtra, they
are called candidates.The
phenomenon of volunteers is also an outcome of
smarting the technique of corruption and to avoid trapping of officials under
the PCA. The volunteers system had become such a cancerous phenomenon to
the department that they are no more under the control of anyone.They
literally dictate terms to the Sub-Registrars and they are law unto themselves.The regular staff had become so relaxing that the whole office functioning
was left to these volunteers.
They had a longer continuity in the officers than any of the
regular staff. As a result of this, the olunteers know better where the records
are and also able to search and provide the E.Cs. with more ease and peed.
Public at large also over the years had developed more confidence with the
volunteers rather than the frequently changing and inefficient staff of the
department.
Other than the volunteers, who used to site and operate with
the of- fice, there are other middle men who operate from the outside the
office premises namely, stamp vendors, deed writers, advocates, nearby commercials establishments and retired employees of the department.
Retail corruption:
The corruption is also sometime classified into wholesale
corruption and Retail Corruption. The corruption what is seen in the
department is retail corruption, as it is mainly focused at each sub-registry and local phenomenon. The most disadvantageous feature of this kind of a
retail corruption is bad public image and public at large try to avoid the contact with the Sub-registries and they have an allergic feeling. It brings in
such a damaging negative effect on the department as action of few limited
officers misdeeds brings totally negative image to the whole department. In
the process the department is viewed by general public as lechers, squeezers
and trouble some department which leads to lack of confidence, trust and good
will with the public.
Types of Bribery:
Types of Bribery in the department can be classified into
the following categories:
1)To avoid harassment and trouble.
2)To get a speedy deiivery of service.
3) To misuse the discretionary power.
4) To save money by avoiding the duty or by paying less.
5) To do an illegal favour.
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