I wanted to blog on Saturday or Sunday but it turned out to be emotionally a roller coaster ride for me. Not anything personal, but in the center of all of this was our great Indian Police force. Well, on last Thursday a police guy came home for my police verification w.r.t my passport, its just over an year since i had moved to my new home so i don't personally know many people in my society. So this guy came and wanted two witnesses and i had none except for the next house boy's phone number. After checking all the genuineness of my living there this guy helped me out by coming up with one more guy's address residing in my society. I was really happy that our system is growing for the better. When this guy was about to leave i gave him 100 Rs. He didn't ask me for any money. Actually he had come earlier , found the door locked and then called me before coming and all so i thought he deserved it.
Then in the evening i went to the police station at Mulund (E), navghar road. There was this guy, i think a sub inspector (he had two stars on his shoulder pad) by he name Ajith Jadhav. He said, since i have lost my license i had to get an affidavit from a notary to get an FIR registered. Then he said , don't worry register and then that he had only one form left of the FIR form, so please get a copy from the xerox shop outside. Then he said, anyway you are getting one for yourself get me 20 copies sot hat he can use it for some more ppl and does not have to sent everybody. I thought its ok. That's a service and i was ready to do it. When i was just about to leave, he said i don't have white paper also so he gave me printer quality A4 size paper and asked me to get a rim(500 page pack) for the station. I ddn't understand much of the conversation since i am not that good with Marathi. I was thinking that he wanted me to get 10 or 25 A4 papers.
My cousin who was with me, explained this to me as soon as we were out of the station and i was furious. I already have told you guys, I don't mind giving money to the cops(not to any other of govt staff), because these guys are putting there life on the line when occasion calls for it and they are not paid enough for it. My anger was that, for an FIR he is not doing antng other than write on his book, So why take money for that. Also if he want's money let him ask me why does he have to make me run around the suburb.
I told my cousin lets call ACP's office and report this. He said to let it go, and all the normal stuff like if we wanna get this done we need to get him those and all. I was still furious i told him lets get some 10 or 25 papers and tell him to take that. We couldn't find a stationary and after an hour we found one. We bought the 100 page rim for 30 bugs and when we went back to the station this guy was busy so we passed all this stuff to the havaldar who immediately put it on the cupboard and prepared the FIR. Then when he went to this Sub Insp. He immediately asked whether we bought the stationary, havaldar replied in affirmative and our job was done.
I was still fuming out there.
Next day morning i had to report to the same station for police verification of my passport. I reached there by 9.45, i was the first bakra of the day. This verifier (dunno his name, think smtg like bushan or smtng... a dark guy around 40+ with specks). Anyway this guy told me that , as i had kept my gas bill as one of the address proof, that is not acceptable. I had to give him my telephone or electricity bill (i don't have telephone at home and we just bought the flat over an year and we got inducted to the society just over a 3 months, so electricity bill still comes in the name of the person who sold us the flat). This guy went on to say that, if i don't have any of these two my job can't be done also that they don't even accept driving license and PAN card (its another matter that i didn't have both). I almost had a heart attack. I was cursing myself for going there all alone and not taking any elder with me in my mind and was begging him to help me out. Damn. This guy suddenly said, Form 16 can do the trick. I told him Form 16 does not have home address. He said that's OK! Damn i got a second shock. Police don't accept PAN Card but they accept Form 16. He sent me home to get the same.
When i returned there were 5 10 ppl waiting for verification. When my turn came, this guy came out of the room, took me out of the station and told me he has to get it signed from him boss and that "karcha pani karna padega". I got the message clear and i said OK. Last three years due to different reasons i was not able to aplly for my passport. Now i didn't want to loose out because of this guy. Now he took me in, there was one more person ahead of me, cleared that guy and when i went in he ddnt take the second copy of Form 16 till i told him that. He just said "aap ka kam hojayga" and that the previous guy was the son of a person working in Forensic Lab still he could not help him since that guy didn't have any papers. Anyway, he then told me, the boss is not here and that he won't keep me waiting so asked how much i can give him. I said 300, He bluntly said no. He said i have to give the boss smtng, then i want smtng for myself , so gimme 500. I begged him but no avail. Then i paid 500.
Saturday this guy called me and said that somebody had come to the station when he was not here and had asked him to call back. He thought it was me. I said No. then he said, don't worry about your passport. "Ap ka kaam hogya" and that he was sending it today. I was telling in my mind.. (i am law abiding citizen, never broken the law, never arrested, never got into any illegal and immoral activity, paid my taxes, never even spits on road or platforn, never travels without a ticket,helps the elderly and hadicapped when ever i can and I have to go through this). The dedication he showed when he got 500 bucks never seems to come for the nation or his duty. Also this police verification is a mere formality. We should some how avoid the cops coming in contact with the applicant. Address verification should be done by passport authority it self. We also should have a HOLMES like software where we can verify if a person has criminal records or not.
I dunno, our system is not complety bad, but it is not evolving with time. Also the Human Resources in our system are not taken care of properly. We need to bring a change not in the system but in how the system serves. Atleast, in the case of police related activities that's true. Also we have to ensure that cops are not over worked unnecessarily.
I am not angry at any of these guys. I am angry at the procedures that are making them do this.
I have no grudges towards them, because of their colleges who fought so that i could see another sunrise, because of many other colleagues who will fight for me to see another sunrise.
My 500 rupees is not even equal to the mud when it is compared to that.
Still we need to root out bribery. We need to bring a change.
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