Paper Paper every where at Stamp Duty Office

Last time I had an interaction with the government as a citizen ,it was with the RTO office and i was impressed by the use of technology in that small office of RTO.
My impression of the government would have stayed the same if I wouldn't have had to interact with the stamp duty office for the amnesty scheme 2008 paper work.

The government had put up stalls (literally stalls outside the MMRDA office bandra in one of their verandas).
I landed up at 9 am in the morning to realise that tokens will be issued only at 10 am. There were people waiting for the token from 6-7 am in the morning !!

As soon as tokens were issued crowd broke the line in order to collect the tokens .There was a lot of hue and cry for the tokens. Around 300 tokens were issued for the borivali area and my turn was around 175 .... My turn would be called around 5 , I realized at the pace at which the work progressed. Since I had to finish certain formalities of the document I hurried to bandra court to complete them.

Reaching MMRDA office back around 1 pm i realised the officers had taken a break for lunch .

My turn came around 4.30 pm and to my surprise there were only 2 staff managing the complete area of borivali and another 2 officers for the andheri area.

I did not see a single computer around and all our details were manually written in a Big register which actually got over by the time my turn came .

While the officer went to collect a new register , the papers started flying every where as it was an open air office !!! The security gaurds started running around to collect the papers.

The same security guard who was managing the crowd was made responsible to collect the files in lots and keep them in storage area. As soon as the guard used to go for keeping the files ,the agents and other applicants who did not believe in queue used to creep in with their files.
We had to wait for 15 minutes till some one could hunt for a new register to capture our details. There was no acknowledgement receipt . The photocopies were stamped and returned to us as acknowledgement receipt.

There was no consideration for senior citizens and I could see old uncles and aunties (Some with sticks in their hands , some with support for neck and back )waiting in queue in the heat whole day long. There were agents all around trying to break the line and were being shwed away by the crowd as they tried to creep in.

Not many people had the clue of what exact documents are required as proof and different officers were actually telling different things to different people.

Over and above I saw lights and bulbs being fitted in the verandah for work to progess during the night . I was completely spell bound by this act and the dedication to make the citizens wait even late in the night and also expect the staff to work over time !!!!

It was the best example of how lack of planning and thinking through the whole process of how the scheme will be handled can create so much inconvinience to the staff as well the citizens.

It actually looked like the intention was to create chaos so that some people can fill up their pockets and benefit from the plight of citizens. The only people enjoying this chaos were the lawyers , advocates ,notary and photocopiers . For them they are making merry while the amnesty scheme shines !!

I seriously wonder how can we become a developed country when basic access to information and convinience to submit documents cannot be provided by the government.The Stamp Duty Department showed complete lack of sensitivity towards the citizens as well as to the staff.
I am truly ashamed !!!!!

Identity and Violence

'Identity and Violence' is the award winning book written by Amartya Sen.
The book explains the deep rooted problems of terrorism connected to an individual's identity. This thought of identity itself has given me a new perspective of looking at myself. It was very early in my college days that I realised that I do not truely identify my self with any particular religion. But I never realised how for so many people religion is the biggest part of their identity. Also while introducing myself to people and seeking other people's introductions I observe that people mostly identify themselves to the profession and also to the organisations they work for. Very rarely do I find people talking about anything else . Have our identities been limited to the jobs we do ? I sometimes wonder. For me my Ego is inflated when I identify myself as some one seeking answers for bigger challenges in life. I am biased towards people who talk big challenges. That's my conditioning. 2 or 3 identities are dominant at any given time. This gives a person security that he /she is not alone in this world. So I think the biggest challenge to overcome for individuals would be to learn to deal with our own insecurity . Be comfortable with one self as being alone and only can we truly accept other people as they are with their dominant identities. I think it's the responsibility of every individual to find oneself in the inner journey . Unless every individual realises this responsibility we will be dealing with only symptoms of problems the humanity is facing be it the financial crisis ,war ,terror . Unless we gather courage and face ourselves , we ourselves are a threat to humanity. I have started my journey . Have you?