- I Paid A Bribe
- 14 years ago
- 4624 views
Bangalore RTOs - Corruption on your face!
- Transport
- General RTO related
- Paid INR 43,500
I shifted to Bangalore from Delhi in November 2008 and I wanted to get my Alto (15 months old) transported here. I thought of multiple options:
1. Selling it off in Delhi and buying a new one in Bangalore
2. Get an NOC for re-registration in Bangalore
3. Get it in Bangalore and keep driving till the cops stop you
Option 3 was not at all acceptable to me as I try to stay away from Traffic cops as far as possible.
Option 1 did not look attractive financially as Delhi does not have a very good resale value for cars and Bangalore has higher cost + registration tax value as compared to Delhi.
Option 2, looked the proper option but what I did not know was the total charges involved in this option.
1. Getting an NOC from Delhi December 2008( After 2-3 unsuccessful attempts to get it from Janakpuri RTO, through some Dad's acquaintance, finally managed to get the NOC from the RTO ( with a warning that within six months the car should be re-registered or else it is as good as junk as it cannot be re-registered anywhere after six months
2. Got it transported to Bangalore without much hassles with the Packers n Movers and the car arrived in Bangalore without much trouble. Since, my company was paying for the relocation of my car, I chose a little higher priced but a safe option (with Insurance etc) to get it transported to Bangalore
3. This is where the trouble starts.
Firstly, you need a permanent address in Bangalore, to which your car is registered. Luckily, one of my very close friend's friend had a house where we put up (on rent). I managed to use that address for the registration. Next, depending on your address, you need to go to the corresponding RTO. Initially, I put up in BTM and I went to the Kormangala RTO to pay the Road Tax and re-register the vehicle. There I went to the office and I found that there was a queue for enquiry. I asked the person about the details and he promptly told me to get the form and pay the road tax and asked me to visit a different counter no. When I went to that counter, the person was not available (a very usual scenario) and agents with bundles of such forms were waiting for their man! Since, I had to return to office quickly, I decided to go out and see if an agent can give me a deal! I met a broker and accepted his offer to get the Road tax + re-registration done with his own commission as Rs 2000. I decided to go ahead and got a xerox of each paper I provided to him. Within a few days he got me the road tax paid receipt (for ~ Rs 37K - which was calculated by the RTO guys). After which he said, the re-registration would take place within a month's time and I shall get the RC book within that time. He asked me for his payment of Rs 2K which I did little knowing that what I would need to go through later.
Part II: After around 25 days, I called the broker and asked him about the re-registration and he asked me to get a few documents required which I did and this time I gave the residence as Bannerghatta Road - Hulimavu (my friend's place). That area came under the Electronic City RTO jurisdiction and there was no Nice Road then which connected EC to B.G. Road
broker also told me about a few processing charges for each step which I promptly agreed to pay.
The first time I visited the RTO, I waited outside while the broker did the running around. The broker came and told me the person was asking for a bribe of Rs 2K. I argued with him that the deal was already set and why I should pay more. He seemed to agree and tried to go back again to the RTO. An inspector inspected the vehicle and the papers after which we applied for re-registration.
After a lot of calls made to the broker, he said that the RTO guys are taking time. He also started avoiding my calls. Somehow, I kept contacting him from different office / friend's numbers. Few days later, he asked me to get a NOC letter from SBI to whom the car was hypothecated to. I told him I had already got the required letter from SBI. After three days he called back saying the letter needs to mention them to put the following statement "We do not have any object to the re-registration of Car in Electronic City RTO, Karnataka" though a similar statement already existed which stated SBI had no objection in my car getting re-registered (Bangalore, Karnataka not mentioned there). Since, the SBI manager knew my dad, this part got done easily and after a week I handed over the letter to broker. It was already mid-February by now and I was starting to get impatient. Then my days used to start with a call to the broker and I used to get an assurance each time that it was being done. Time passed and I decided to meet the broker and take the papers from him and deal with this myself. I did not want my car to remain unregistered for six months and then become a junk.
I visited the EC RTO and tried to argue with the people who I remembered from my last visit. Everytime I visited they used to ask me for some letter from SBI or some other document and kept saying that once I get the document, I shall get the new RC within a week's time.
Time passed by and it was April end, and I was exhausted with this routine unsuccessful visits. Anyway, I went to the RTO and this time as all the documents were absolutely fine, the guy at RTO asked me to wait. After around two hours of waiting, he finally came to me and asked me for a bribe of 5K. I tried to explain/argue/convince him about the whole thing and explained my current situation. He agreed to come down to 3K. He said, I can't go below that and if you want you can pay and take the RC or else you can keep waiting till the procedure is completed.
Looking at the options, I thought I had anyways wasted so much money. I decided to pay the additional amount and get the RC on the spot to avoid any further tension / petrol wastage.
I paid the amount, got my passport sized photographs clicked on the spot and handed over to this guy, who as promised handed me my RC book within another hour's time.
I calculated that I paid nearly 38500 as expenses for re-registration and Rs 5K as bribe. Had I chosen option 3, even if I was stopped by cops everyday for Rs 100 for my registration number, it would have taken them more than 14 months to collect this much amount.
So much for being an honest law abiding citizen!