• Bribe Hotline
  • 14 years ago
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Dear Sir, I want to register a resale flat in Khagadaspura, Bangalore admesuring 1058 SqFt area. This is Approx Five years old flat. I want to know what is Govt Rate for this property and how much is

Reported on September 29, 2010 from Bangalore , Karnataka  ι Report #33996

<p>
Every area in Bangalore has a guidance value which can be ascertained from the sub Registrar&#39;s office concerned. In fact, this data is also available on the registration department&#39;s website http://www.karigr.org/. However, this data is in all probability, outdated. Therefore its better that you get it from the sub-Registrar&#39;s office. Once this is obtained, you can prepare a sale deed and the sub registrar shall register it.&nbsp; Its your right to have the sale deed registered! And do you know who will lose if you do not register it? The government, because they collect stamp duty on the transaction!</p>
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In the past, there was a lot of scope for corruption. This was because the buyer would pay some part of the sale amount in unaccounted money. The registration office would know about it. So they threatened the buyer with the threat that they would launch an investigation into undervaluation! In such circumstances, the registration office and the buyer colluded to declare a low value and the buyer parted with a bribe, to pay the registration office authorities to look the other way. Who was the loser? The government, which was not getting the full stamp duty that ought to have been paid!</p>
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So what did the government do? They came out with fixed area wise guidance values. Regardless of the value on your sale deed, you had to pay the stamp duty as per the guidance value, (or the sale deed value, whichever is higher). This has changed the situation completely. The registrar&rsquo;s office has no discretion now. They must register your deed.</p>
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Therefore, do not fall into the clutches of any agent, who tells you that you have to pay a bribe. You need not pay anything except the stamp duty. What can the registration office do if you do not pay a bribe? They can make you wait, thats all! And even there they cannot do much. Please go to the registration departments website, at</p>
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<a href="http://www.karigr.org/citizen/default.htm">http://www.karigr.org/citizen/default.htm</a></p>
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Here you can download the citizens charter of the registration department. Do you in know in how much time the sub registrar has committed to complete your transaction? 2 hours 20 minutes! 20 minutes to verify the market value of property, 1 hour for Preliminary scrutiny of documents, enclosures and issue of Form No.1A. and one hour for admission of documents, recording signatures etc. Please print out the citizens charterand carry it with you. Let us see how many officials will disregard their own departments citizens charter!</p>
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At the end of the day, once again, I stress that the registration department has no discretion to refuse to undertake a registration, if your papers are in order. According to their own citizens charter, they have committed to finish your transaction within a short time. If they demand a bribe from you, it is because they believe they can fool you.</p>
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Apart from carrying the citizens charter,<strong><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">We have a few simple tips, gleaned from the experiences of those who have successfully resisted corruption, as to how to avoid a bribe taking situation. These are as follows:</span></span></strong></p>
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(1)&nbsp;&nbsp; Do your homework before you approach a government office for anything. For example, go to the website of the department concerned, spend a little time understanding the rules and regulations. If the department has FAQs, please read them thoroughly. If the department has a citizens charter under which they commit to complete a particular job within a specific time, then carry this with you when you visit their office, to confront bribe takers with it.</p>
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(2)&nbsp;&nbsp; Do not set out to do something illegal. For instance, if you are buying a property, or a flat, it is better to buy it with money paid by cheque.</p>
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(3)&nbsp;&nbsp; Do not go to middlemen. In almost every transaction, there are middlemen who operate, such as builder&rsquo;s agents, touts in the sub-registrar&rsquo;s office. Avoid them.</p>
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(4)&nbsp;&nbsp; If somebody tries to approach you to pay a bribe, please take the following approach:</p>
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(a)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Do not be submissive. Look confident. Look him in the eye.&nbsp; Ask him for his name, call him by his name. Do not call him &ndash;&lsquo;sir&rsquo;. Be polite but do not show unnecessary respect.&nbsp; Be firm and confident.</p>
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(b)&nbsp; Tell him clearly what you want and that you are applying in the prescribed format. Also tell him that you suspect that things will move only if you pay a bribe. Tell him very clearly, that you will not pay a bribe.</p>
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c) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If he asks you for money, then loudly, so that others also hear what you are saying, say that you will give him a bribe only if he gives you a receipt. Or make it very clear that you will not pay him one paisa.</p>
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(5) Try to tackle the government officers as a group, never alone. People in corrupt offices get a little worried when you go as a group.</p>
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(6) Be patient, when faced with delaying tactics. <em>When an official is consistently unavailable in office,&nbsp; leave a letter that says (for example) that we came to visit the official at the time and date specified but that he was not available. Please also&nbsp; say that his assistant told us to come again on another date (to be specified). Such letters will make the official feel that he must take special care of your work &ndash; that we are people he must not trifle with. </em></p>
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(7) Do not submit any applications or papers, without obtaining a written acknowledgment that such papers have been submitted.</p>
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<em>(8) Do not accept any oral instructions from any government official.</em>If any government official speaks of a procedure, that you do not know of or is not in the rule book, then ask him to show the government rule under which he is dealing with any application that you make. If he does not do so, you &nbsp;must (a) write a letter saying that they demanded these papers and seek to know the written instructions under which these are mandatory. (b) If there is no response, file RTI applications to find our whether such a written instruction exists. (c)&nbsp; Use RTI Act to find out whether such papers have been demanded from other applicants.in this regard.</p>
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A hint here: <em>It we are asked to bring some additional papers, and then an official offers to do the work without these additional papers for a bribe, then it is conclusive proof that such papers are unnecessary in the first place.</em></p>
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(8) Talk about going to senior officials of the department, as also the Lokayukta too, with a complaint, in case your work is not done. Please mention the names of higher officials. Most people who engage in petty corruption are also cowards! More often than not, when confronted with resistance, corrupt officials will immediately buckle down and do your work.</p>
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(9) Also be ready to send complaints to the public grievance cell (also available for many departments on their websites) with all details. Do this on a weekly basis, till people do your work.&nbsp;</p>
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(10) Carry recording instruments; even a mobile will do. Every conversation will be recorded and then documented, including time and day. <em>(This might be considered a little tedious &ndash; but this is very useful, because we all tend to forget very quickly, what was said). </em></p>
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The purpose of the above steps is two fold</p>
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(a) These improve our confidence, knowledge and negotiating ability</p>
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(b) it disrupts the normal behaviour pattern to which corrupt people are used. They expect you to be unsure and confused when you visit an office. By going there confidently, in a group and speaking bluntly as one, we are disrupting their pattern and making the conversation run according to our pattern. We control the conversation! Once you do all this, most officials back off and immediately do your work. They are always afraid of knowledgeable&nbsp; people.</p>
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(11) You can also try some black humour or passive resistance, a la Gandhi (we call it Gandhigiri, a term made very popular by a Bollywood film!). It has been known to work. For instance, you could pay officials concerned in zero rupee notes, which can be downloaded from the web!&nbsp;</p>

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