Good Morning Officer...............

"Good Morning Officer", the consultant wished the man in a Safari suit behind the counter. The official was wearing a dark brown Safari suit, wearing gold-framed spectacles, a large dialled wrist watch with silver strap and a gold chain with a big dollar.

The Officer looked up at Raghu, the consultant and then continued flipping through the papers in his hand.

Dilip had bought a new car, and the car dealer had informed about Raghu, the consultant who would get the car registration done very smoothly at the RTO office.

Raghu called Dilip in the evening and asked him to be at the RTO office by 10.00 a.m in the morning next day.

"The registration will be done within one hour, Sir", Raghu had clarified to Dilip on the call.

"Sir, please bring cash of about Rs.5,000 for incidental expenses at the registration office".

"Why do you require so much?" a surprised Dilip enquired. "I have already paid for all the registration cost and expenses as part of the total cost of the car to the Dealer itself".

"But Sir, this is required for the expenses which may be incurred at the RTO office. I will leave it to you, Sir".

"Ok. I will meet you at the entrance gate of the RTO office tomorrow morning at 10.00 a.m"

"Right Sir, will be there at 10.00 a.m".

The RTO office was an old building and behind the office was a large parking area. When he entered through the gate, Dilip noticed there were 10-15 small shops with each of an area in which about 2 people can stand in it. All the shops had just opened and people were looking through various papers, documents, some were busy photocopying documents, others were pasting photographs on the forms. The tea shop was doing roaring business, with typical wooden benches having many people sitting and sipping the hot tea, with eyes doing a 180° view of the activities around them.

Dilip parked and got out of his new car, looked around to check on the arrival of consultant, Raghu. Before he picked his mobile to call him, Raghu came on his bike, waved at Dilip and parked his bike next to the car.

Exchanging pleasantries, Raghu waved his hand at other people around. He was popular at the RTO office, being in this ‘consulting' trade for more than four years. Raghu was wearing a tight blue jean, with a red checked shirt, with a back-pack bag full of documents, of all his clients for whom registration were done on that day. He had two mobiles, one in his hand and the other jutting out of his jean pocket. In India today, invariably most, have atleast two mobiles!!!

Dilip looked around the RTO Office. The office had a large lobby with about 25 steel chairs laid out in the lobby for visitors and completely occupied. The entrance door was an iron-grilled one with both sides of the entrance having huge sign boards. At the bottom of one of the board was a signature stone having name of the Minister, local MLA, who had inaugurated the office way back in 1995.

On one side of the entrance was a huge notice board, with numerous notices pinned or stuck to it. Raghu called Dilip to the table below the notice board, and took signatures in many pages of the document.

Pointing at one of the notice board above the table, Raghu said, "Sir, can you see the list of numbers on the Board. It is the list of special numbers for today, with every series having numbers adding up to "0, 1, 2…. to "9"

"You can choose three numbers and give your preference, Sir". "The officer will allot based on your preferences".

Raghu continued, "Sir, you may mostly get the second or third preference, or may not get any and will be allotted a number randomly."

"Raghu, how is the allotment done?"

"Sir, it is done on a first-come-first serve basis". "And the official fees for this preference request is Rs.2000".
"However, Sir, if you definitely want to get atleast your first or second preference, we need to pay extra of Rs.1000 to the Officer".

Dilip got the taste of these ‘unofficial fees' at the RTO office.

Having paid the ‘unofficial fees’, he looked around and saw another large Notice Board painted in Red.

It read as -

Series 1 : - 1,5,7, 9,99,999,9999, 786 etc…- Rs.50,000

Series 2 - 9099,9909, 555,111 etc. - Rs.30,000
Series 3 - 666,777,888,444,333,222 etc - Rs.25000

Raghu noticed Dilip and said "Sir, these are official fees to be paid to get the fancy numbers. But, it is all subject to availability of each number in a series".

"However Sir, if we pay Rs.10,000 to the Officer, then you will definitely get the preferred number. Otherwise, the Officer will tell you that the requested number is not available".

After about an hour, Dilip was called inside the office building and Raghu took him to one of the counters, where he was asked to sign on a device, which captured the signature digitally.

At the next counter, Dilip's finger prints were captured, and then was given a cloth to clean the ink on the fingers. 

The total process was done in 10 minutes and he came out of the office. Raghu thanked the officials at each of the counters, smiled at other staff around.

"Sir, now give me Rs.1000. It is to be paid to the Officer for completing the signature work quickly".

Dilip retorted, with a "Why??"

"Sir, please understand that this payment is what made you to be called inside within one hour".

"Otherwise, Sir, you have to deposit your forms in the counter, and then most likely, your turn would have come after 3-4 hours of waiting. Sir, as I told you earlier, these ‘unofficial fees' ensures that I book some tokens the previous evening for my clients, so that you do not wait for more than one hour and also complete the process smoothly".

"You can call this ‘Speed Money', or whatever. But without these payments, your time will be wasted and the registration process may not even get completed in a single day".

"You are giving a new definition, Raghu. Anyway, how do you make your money for your services?"

Raghu, a bit surprised at this inquisitiveness, replied "Sir, I make only about 10%-15% of the ‘Unofficial Fees’ paid by you. The balance has to go to the Officer and his colleagues. And on top of it, I also get Rs.2000 for every registration paid by the Car Dealer".

Their conversation was interrupted by a call on Raghu's mobile. Apparently, it was another client coming to the office in the next 30 minutes for registration.

Raghu, turned to the Inspector at the parking area, and called out the engine registration number, which was recorded in a form by the Inspector.

Raghu went into a shop and took copies of the forms and the registration slip. He gave the originals to Dilip and said, "Sir, One more thing. Give me Rs.500. It is required to ensure that I personally receive the Registration Card and send it to the Dealer tomorrow".

"Again, ‘speed money’?"

"Yes Sir, because we have only paid Rs.120 as official fees for the dispatch of the Registration Card. It may take 15 days for the dispatch section to send out the Card. But they will send it by ordinary Post only, which may reach you in another 15 days. If it gets lost in transit, Sir, you will have a problem"

"Once this Rs.500 is paid to the official at the dispatch section, I will personally take out the registration card and send it to you", Raghu concluded.

Dilip started his new car, and at the entrance gate, turned around and saw Raghu, in animated discussions with the Officers and his other clients. Raghu on seeing him, came and shook hands with him and said "Sir, everything is done, you will receive the registration card tomorrow. Thanks, Sir".

His thoughts still lingered on the "extra money" he paid and the new word he ‘learnt'- "speed money". He remembered Kamal's Tamil movie "Indian", which had similar scenes at the RTO office and laughed to himself, at the dialogues in those scenes, which had become timeless and part of the Tamil movie folklore.

Why is this small level corruption not going out in India? In fact it has increased over the years, despite advancement and adoption of technology in all the government processes of all progressive states. Why? Why? It has actually got ingrained into each individual - both the giver and the receiver of this ‘unofficial money'.

This personal experience at the RTO office clogged and stifled the thoughts of Dilip, made him think and wonder, why such corruption happens only in India..!! His immediate thoughts were on what it would be in America. He picked his mobile and called his friend in Bangalore, who had returned to India after more than two decades in USA.

He told his friend about his experience at the RTO office, the concept of ‘speed money' and enquired about the activities involved in a new vehicle registration in USA.

When a new vehicle is purchased, one is given 30 days to register the vehicle. You don't need any appointment. You just walk into the local DMV office (Department of Motor Vehicle), pay the necessary fees and collect the registration documents and the car licence plate (number plate). You can get a preferred car number plate (maybe your name or your favorite word) by paying additional fees of $ 50 - $ 75. Only point is that such preferred word needs to be in alphabets. However, every licence plate has unique numbers embedded in it and not visible on the plate.

The entire process is completed in one visit with minimum time spent. You pay the annual car registration tax online.

Unlike, private companies, the officials present at DMV offices work for the state or district. Hence these staff, at the most, keep long faces, and may not be that polite in speaking to customers.
The process is very transparent, simple and with very minimum of human interactions and of course without any ‘speed money'.

On giving this brief on the registration process in USA, Dilip's friend argued that process in USA cannot and should not be compared to India.

The friend continued, "Not only the process is different, Dilip, you should also think that this ‘so-called consulting' activity at RTO offices in India, also becomes a way of creating self-employment".

"There are 35 states and Union Territories in India. Just assume that on an average, there are 30 RTO offices in each state. You get a total number of about 1000. Even considering that each RTO office has about 10 ‘consultants', you get a potential employment figure of about 10,000 people. And add to that the indirect activities of Xerox shops, photo studios, Tea shops and stamp vendors at each of the RTO Office, you generate easily another atleast 20,000 self-employment opportunities.  You look at it differently and you will understand my reasoning".

Dilip was dazed and perplexed by the ‘Math" and reasoning provided by his friend.

Dilip argued, "Even if your math and reasoning is right, let us not forget that creating transparent processes similar to USA is definitely possible in India, given the technology and knowledge levels available here. And even taking your argument forward that it creates self-employment opportunities, let us not forget that most of the additional ‘speed money', paid goes into the pockets of these Officers and it is bribe, plain and simple". This fact cannot be erased or ignored and no argument can make this wrong, right……

“Will we see a day in our life when we do not pay a single rupee to get small works done at any government office in India, during our lifetime??” wondered Dilip and heaved a huge sigh, as he concluded the call with his friend……!!!!

     -       Venkatesh

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[This story is based on true incident. Characters in the story are fictional and any resemblance to any individual is purely coincidental].
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PS. Following is the video clipping of the scenes at a RTO Office from the Tamil movie “Indian”, starring Kamal Haasan. This movie was dubbed into Telugu as “Bharatheeyudu” and in Hindi as “Hindusthani”.