- I Paid A Bribe
- 12 years ago
- 2549 views
NRIs being ripped off by Prohibition Officer in Gujarat
Gujarat, a dry state, issues Tourist's Permit for liquor to out-of-state visitors. To make it easier for the visitors, The Prohibition & Excise Department has officers who are available to take application and issue these Permits on the premises of Government authorized liquor shops. I was visiting Ahmedabad from the US during Dec. - Jan. and went to Hotel Inder Residency to get my permit. The officer there, a man by the name of **********, took my application and issued the permit on the spot. However, before handing the permit to me he said, "That will be Rs. 200". This was in full view and hearing of the employees of the liquor shop and others waiting for their permits. Not knowing that these permits are issued free of charge, I paid ********** the 200 rupees. Then while I was waiting the liquor shop to fill my order, I read on the permit, in red font, "THIS PERMIT IS GRANTED FREE OF COST FRO (sic) MAXIMUM PERIOD OF ONE MONTH". When I read this, I asked ********** what was the 200 rupees for, since the permit is supposed to be free. He said, "Everyone pays that". So I asked him a pointed question, "Is this official charge or unofficial?" To that he started becoming evasive and said he didn't have time to discuss this with me since there were too many people in line. When I persisted, he asked me to come back later. However due to time and distance constraints I was not able to return and the issue remained unresolved. So while I thought I was paying a "fee" for the permit, in reality I had inadvertently paid a bribe to a blatantly corrupt Prohibition & Excise officer!