Registras of Corruption

A recent experience in a Land Register office in the outskirts of Bangalore gave me an insight on how our babus are beating the computerized system.

Brokers still play a key role in getting the appontment for registering the land ( selling or buying, they have a strong influence on how fast your work gets done at the office. Going by the normal token system would make one spend a full day outside the office and the officials may trouble with queries.

For both the buyer and seller the costs of buying and selling prove to be costlier since the broker inflates the price and pockets a cool 10% of the selling price and shares the bounty with the babus.

Land registration ( Agricultural, Residential and Commercial) has been handled hap handedly since independence. Many regulations have been brought in but corruption is evident in all things related selling and buying land.

It is not more laws but more computerization of the whole process that is needed.

CIO Article Link

http://www.cio.com/article/513613

Anarchy and Administration

Sometimes I feel we take false pride in being the world’s most populous democracy. We equate conducting successful elections and electing government’s sufficient reasons for declaring ourselves as successful democracy. The other equally important aspects of a democracy governance, rule and respect for law, equal opportunity are conveniently forgotten once parties come to power.
Three recent and ongoing incidents bring out the anarchy or lack of governance in the country.
1) DGP Rathore getting away from justice for 19 long years is a shame on the country’s criminal justice system. The way Rathore has used his power to systematically eliminate all opposition is a telling example of collusion between politicians and bureaucrats. Misuse of power by the politicians and bureaucrats has been a bane in this country. This lack of integrity in this two important bodies leads to weak implementation of the law.
2) I guess no other country is as insensitive to loss of human life as we are. Three train crashes on a single day with a significant loss of life talks about our disregard for human life. The reason for the crash is dense fog but our rail administrators do know that this time of the year there is fog and should have monitored the situation. If it is not fog it is due to fish plate’s removal, manual driver error or speeding, year on year rail crashes keep happening with less focus on safety. Railway ministry is a sought after cabinet position and heavily politicized and needs clean up
3) Anarchy in AP – Politicians and the student wings of their parties are taking Hyderabad to ransom with frequent calls for bandhs. They have no idea about the damage they are causing to the city’s brand, loss of revenue to business, loss of school time for children. It is very unfortunate that the state transport corporation takes a hit for all political issues. India should have a strong law to handle the cases of arson, similar to the law being planned for communal riots. Police forces are mute spectators to all this due to lack of independence.