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Commitment by I.G.R.
The
papers deal in detail the rampant corruption prevalent in registering
department, the modus operandi of corruption, the people involved in
corruption. The following is the extract from lead papers:
"It
is a common knowledge that the Sub-registrars' Officers in the state have
become notorious as dens of corruption. As the corruption which occurs in
Sub-Registrars' of- fices will be mostly collusive corrup- tion, where the
giver of bribe as well as taker of the bribe would not be ready to complain against
each other, in the matter it would not be that easy to secure evidence in
relation to such activity.
In
many cases the officers and the personnel in Sub-Registrars' Office's are
involving outsiders to help the bribe giver and the bribe taker in relation to
their bribing trans- actions, to identify the Officers and officials of the
Sub-Registry involved in bribe -taking and bribe giving, becomes much more
difficult. "SubRegistrars' Officers, although they are regarded by the
Public as dens of corruption in which corruption is made the way of life of the
officers and officials of the sub-Registry, hir- ing volunteers, the document
writers and stamp vendors for the purpose." (Loka yukata)
HARRASMENT TO PUBLIC
Corruption
has become a inevitable proposition in the Department. General Public believes
that nothing moves without greasing the officials. In addition to that there is
lot of secrecy that is surrounded around the property valuations though they
are more of an open issue. The local committees constituted for this purpose
review these rates once in three years and they are published either locally or
through gazette.
The
confidence level of the pub- lic with the department are very low and they do
not feel comfortable to approach the Sub-Registrar on their own without they
help of the middle man.
The
behavior of most of the Sub Registrars is also highly objectionable as neither
they are courteous nor helpful in dealing with the public. Their attitude is of
making money ir- respective of any customer and they have no discrimination
between the poor and the rich. There are instances where they had been so
blatant in demanding money even from reputed journalists and police officers
despite disclosing their identities. Some of the sub-registrars went to the
extent of stating that they need to pay all the masters and therefore, they
need to be paid. Most of them have cal- lous, insensitive and indecent behav-
ioral attitudes which compounds the problem. Once they sit in the chair, they
loose their senses and the pri- vate business approach dawns in their minds.
Added
to this is the problem of volunteers. Volunteers system had taken deep roots
since more than a decade and they had been function- ing literally as officials
of the depart- ment without any locus standi. Most of these volunteers are
either retired employees of the department or the relations of the present
serving em- ployees of the department which ac- counts for the large number.
The remaining number is due to political influence who are basically unem-
ployed and had found out the vol un- teer job as a means to earn quick money.
The real problematic sec- tions of volunteers are the goondas and the criminals
from the land deal- ers section who are not only rich but also who can afford
to use their muscle power to harass the public and squeeze the money. There is
also another section which belongs to the close kith and kin of the serving
min- isters and kinds of corruption.
Administrative corruption.
The
corruption in the department mainly falls into this category of ad-
ministrative corruption. The last but not the least is the category of Deed
writer, stamp vendors and typists who wait and watch the innocent citizens.
This needs to be further classified into: According to Rule Corruption and Against
the Rule Corruption.
According to Rule Corruption
According
to Rule corruption is a smaller phenomenon, where the bribes are collected
despite all the papers being in order. This is an amount demanded directly and
the public pays this as a token of safety as they do not like to face any prob-
lems in the future. Most of the cor- ruption related to the search and issuance
of Encumbrance certificates falls in this category. The corruption at the level
of peon, who takes the thumb impression also falls into this category. There
are many instances, where the peon does not leave the thumb until his bribe of
Rs.SO/- to 100/- is paid, though they admit it is only Rs.lO/- to 20/- only.
Against the Rule Corruption:
This
is a major problematic area. The Sub-Registrars and the District Registrars
enjoy discretionary pow- ers which are often misused. There are areas which
range from interpre- tation of the Acts, circulars issued and raising
objections on the docu- ments presented. On the guidance values is another
issue which is also a source of massive corruption. The audit had clearly shown
that there are glaring omissions on the part of the sub-registrars while
calculating the stamp duty and registration duty, where the property locations
are wrongly and deliberately shown at lesser prices. The against rule in-
cludes cases like allowing registra- tions where they are prohibited under the
law in the light of public policy and non insistence of IT clearances etc and
buildings being shown as vacant sites etc.
Collusive
Corruption
Hon'ble
Lokayukta had already stated that the corruption in this de- partment is of the
nature of collusive corruption, where neither bribe taker nor the giver is
willing to complain. Mostly the collusive corruption is due to the involvement
of the volun- teers. This is not only existing in Karnataka but also common in
the other States. States like Maharashtra, they are called candidates. The phe-
nomenon of volunteers is also an outcome of smarting the technique of
corruption and to avoid trapping of officials under the PCA. The volun- teers
system had become such a can- cerous phenomenon to the department that they are
no more under the control of anyone. They literally dictate terms to the
Sub-Reg- istrars and they are law unto them- selves. The regular staff had
become so relaxing that the whole office func- tioning was left to these
volunteers.
They
had a longer continuity in the officers than any of the regular staff. As a
result of this, the olunteers know better where the records are and also able
to search and provide the E.Cs. with more ease and peed. Public at large also
over the years had developed more confidence with the volunteers rather than
the frequently changing and inefficient staff of the department.
Other
than the volunteers, who used to site and operate with the of- fice, there are
other middle men who operate from the outside the office premises namely, stampvendors, deed writers, advocates, nearby com- mercials establishments and
retired employees of the department.
Retail
corruption:
The
corruption is also sometime classified into wholesale corruption and Retail
Corruption. The corrup- tion what is seen in the department is retail
corruption, as it is mainly fo- cused at each sub-registry and local
phenomenon. The most disadvanta- geous feature of this kind of a retail
corruption is bad public image and public at large try to avoid the con- tact
with the Sub-registries and they have an allergic feeling. It brings in such a
damaging negative effect on the department as action of few lim- ited officers
misdeeds brings totally negative image to the whole depart- ment. In the
process the department is viewed by general public as lech- ers, squeezers and
trouble some de- partment which leads to lack of confidence, trust and good
will with the public.
Types of Bribery:
Types
of Bribery in the depart- ment can be classified into the fol- lowing
categories:
1)To
avoid harassment and trouble
2)To
get a speedy deiivery of service
3)
To misuse the discretionary power vested with
4)
To save money by avoiding the duty or by paying less
5)
To do an illegal favour.
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