Lies, Bribes and Government Babus-II
Posted on April 22, 2011
Some time ago, ipaidabribe featured the real-life story of corruption at the Nagpur Improvement Trust, Maharashtra (Lies, Bribes and Government Babus). It ended where a notice was sent to the landlord, T, regarding the demolition. Here is Part–II of this citizen’s story.
Not many pet parents know that we need to have a license from Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to keep pets at our residence. The fee is Rs. 200 per pet. NMC had advertised this once in the newspapers around 2008 and the response was very poor since NMC does not provide any special services for pet owners. I was annoyed because the application stated that you had to keep your dogs muzzled always; so on principle I had not got these licenses. But knowing that T was beginning to grease government agencies (why else did NIT move so fast?), I went to my vet who advised us that we can only take two licenses per household.
Mangalwari Zone readily gave us the licenses in J’s name on miscellaneous receipts. We decided to get two more in my sister’s name, but she didn’t live in Nagpur.
July melted into September. The two licenses remained pending.
In October, J and I were travelling overseas. My sister was going to baby sit my four canines. On 2 November 2010, we left India. T moved again. This time he greased the police and NMC. He used the letterhead of Gruh Laxmi Gruh Nirman Society, which is a housing society for buying and selling of plots, and cajoled people to sign on the blank paper saying it was a petition for building a park! He then used these papers to write two complaints against us. The complaint read:
• We have 8-10 dogs who roam around on the street biting people. • That people in the neighbourhood do not get water in their houses because we keep bathing our dogs. • That we buy and sell dogs and many more such allegations.
The complaint had 15 signatures on it. On 2 November 2010, T took his gardener, his servant and two more people from our colony to the police station. He phoned a few more people asking them to reach the police station but they refused. Police sub inspectors later told us that Rs. 10,000 was the price fixed by the police inspector to accept the complaint. In our past experience with SPCA, we knew the police inspector well.
Having greased the police, T now went to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (Dharampeth Zone) and filed the same complaint with them. Here peons told us that Rs 5000 exchanged hands.
NMC is cheaper!
On 4 November 2010 (Thursday), two days after receiving the complaint, the Zonal Officer (Health) of NMC, Dharampeth Zone sent J a notice asking him to submit the licenses of our dogs within three days – no explanation given. On reading the fine print, my sister found that the notice was marked as FYI to the NMC Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, Dharampeth Zone. But it was sent to the Gittikhadan police for their action (FYA) stating that we did not possess the licenses. So NMC did not bother to wait for our response but opened the door for our harassment by the police instead.
When my sister A called us about the notice, we had no idea about the formal complaint issued, so we asked her to go to our vet for his advice. He said that in 32 years of his practise, he had never seen a notice like this. On his advice, she went to NMC, Laxminagar zone and applied for the two pending licenses. The Zonal Officer (Health) refused to issue the licenses citing `lack of badges’. A asked him to give this in writing but he refused that also. She then used the only weapon available to common humans like us – Right to Information. She told the officer that if he did not issue the badges the next day, she would file an RTI application to find out their procurement process for badges and the financials involved in it. The officer asked A to wait, sent his peon in his official car and got the badges in the next one hour!
Wonder what the RTI would have revealed!
Finally, around 11.30 am, on Monday, 8 November 2010, two police sub inspectors from Gittikhadan police came to my house. They said they had a complaint about our dogs – no other details. According to the law, the police is supposed to show you the copy of the complaint or at least read out the complaint to you. They are also not supposed to enter any premises without a warrant.
However, the police insisted on examining the house from inside to see how clean it is and if it smells so much (because of the dogs) that it is reaching the neighbours. A refused to let them in. They then started taking a statement from our day servant. A called us, and I called up my close relatives and my vet. On seeing them at my house, the sub inspector changed tactics. “You know how these cases go sahib, why do you want this headache? If you want, we can bury this right now. You are obviously wealthy people, what is Rs 5000 - 6000 to you?” he said to my uncle. My uncle refused.
The police warned us before leaving, “Yeh khatam nahi hua hain. We will come back. “And they did – seven of them and so did senior NMC officials!
- AB, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
Watch this space for more! Send in your stories of battles against corruption with us at info@ipadiabribe.com to provide inspiration for those still caught in the thick of it.