- Bribe Fighter
- 14 years ago
- 2918 views
8 months waiting for PIO card
Last year in September we, my son Nishal and I, had submitted the application forms and all required papers for a PIO card personally at the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi for our son and also paid the full amount of Rs.7500. We were told that it might take 6 months to get the card and that the police here in Lucknow would come to verify various papers and details.
In November 2010 one police officer came to our house and spoke to our son while my wife and I were not at home. He asked for money for petrol and chai paani which in other words means he wanted a bribe and our son explained that we don't pay bribes. He did not ask for any of the documents that he was supposed to verify. Our son got the telephone number of this police officer but not the name. He is probably from the local police station here, where they already know us very well, because we had a long process with the officers there to get the police verification for my wife's passport cleared in January last year. There too we refused to pay any bribes because we believe that it is illegal and would encourage this rotten practice. (I have already made another report about that.)
Some weeks after the first police officer had met our son another officer came on a Sunday when only our oldest son was at home, also regarding the PIO card. He too asked for money, and was trying to explain to our son that the money that we should give to them is not a bribe but is more of a duty and that giving bribes is the culture here. He didn't check any documents and explained to our son that we'll be in trouble if we don't pay. That officer refused to give his name and telephone number. I'm very sorry that each time these officers came I was not at home because I would have recorded these conversations with our video camera.
I had also been to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office here in Lucknow where I and all our children are registered and asked about this police verification process for PIO cards, but they said they don't have any documents of this application and that these should have come to them. They asked to provide the names of these officers which we did not have. I tried to give the phone number of that first officer but they said they need the names.
I have meanwhile written to the Joint Secretary (Foreigners)
at the Ministry of Home Affairs and explained our experience and the fact that it is now 8 months since we had applied for this card and our son will need that PIO card to get admission in a university here in India. We wonder how much longer it will take.