- I Paid A Bribe
- 13 years ago
- 919 views
Greedy officials will make you run around until you pay up
- Water and Sewage
- New Connection
- Paid INR 9,000
We built a new house - a single dwelling over two floors. It was our dream project. When the time came to getting the water connection, I went to the BWSSB office and met the Asst Exec Engineer through some personal contact. Many calls and follow-ups later, the AEE came over to the new house one fine day for "inspection" and said it would cost me 7K unofficial "fees". Left with no other choice, I started collecting documents etc for the application, but the engineer was playing truant, not meeting me when he said he would, not picking up calls or disconnecting calls etc etc. This was affecting my work schedules as I had to drive up quite a distance to see him, but he wouldn't be available as he said he would. It was just a lot of hassle.
After nearly 3 weeks of this, I threw in the towel and contacted a local chap who had earlier approached me saying he would get this work done. It cost me Rs.10K + his commission now, but the work got done within days.
Its really a shame that I had to pay unofficial money to get whats rightfully mine (a water connection!). But I guess the officials and all the other chaps loitering around the BWSSB office have a well-oiled machine where they bully us, make us run around a few times and then in the end, they still end up taking bribes from us. Its shameful, but it seems the easiest thing in this crooked system is to not tread the "correct/ethical" path at all, and just go with the bribe route - it would atleast save time and hassle!
Privatising BWSSB is probably a solution, as atleast then one could put up a fight by reporting an erring officer to his higher-ups etc. But when it comes to government, its always talked about in hushed tones how all bribes eventually find their way high up ... and I mean even above the bureaucrats too.