Today is D!! @a-z challenge.
I Decided to do some grumbling today!
See the crowd above? It is outside the Ration Office @Thane. Its disgusting! Not the crowd, but the way these people are made to stand outside ( often in the sun or rain ) the whole day just for a little work ( mainly to check few documents and get a signature ). It happens everyday. People come early, some as early as 4 am just to keep their place in the queue, else they wouldnot get a chance the whole day as the line moves slow at snail's pace.
I've been there myself quite a few times and missed it as well, much to my frustration, as the counter would simply snap shut strictly at 2pm. And then it just would not open. And you have to make several rounds to finally get your work done. You can of course use an agent to do all your dirty work, but be ready to pay the bribe too. I didn't want to pay the bribe, hence I decided to battle it out myself.
( You'll also find some other elements lurking around. I was approached by two, who wanted to sell their space in the queque. Imagine that! )
The first day I had to wait 4 hours and managed to reach the counter for checking at the nick of time, but by the time I went to the counter for submission it had already closed. Some of the people went to make a request to open for a few minutes. After lot of pleading, the lady officer agreed to open only for 10 minutes. But the moment it opened, hundreds of people gathered out of nowhere. So, she shut it again and went off, never to be seen again for the day.
Next time too, I barely reached the counter and it was already 2pm. Its frustrating when after waiting for hours, you reach the counter only to be said that times up!
The third day, I went much early around 9.30am before the office opened and managed to somehow reserve a place, After 1 hour of waiting I finally got to submit. However, I'll have to make some more trips until I finally get the card.
Well, the card is one of the most important Identity Card, but the process to get it is simply Disgusting!
( Ironically illegal bangladeshis get these cards much more easily than the genuine citizens becos of vote bank politics )
I had been avoiding all these years, until I got to hear about the Adhaar Card, which you'll get only if you have the ration card and its a must as it is like a Citizenship Card! Hence, the grind! ( Sometimes there are scuffles too as people get really irritated waiting so long )
This is one trip I hate making! Sigh! Grrr! ASDFGASDFG!
I sincerely wish people at the Ration Office keep some extra counters seeing the volume of people who come everyday. Looks, I'm not the only one complaining - Read Here.
Well, Bureaucracy of our country - even God cant help! Sigh!
I too had such a bitter experience. When the whole office moves on bribe, you cant get your things done there without greasing someone's palms.
ReplyDelete:-( thats too bad.
DeleteThat's why Govt is reluctant in automating things. If things smooth and transparent,the scope of corruption would drastically reduce. The more the queue/torture/pain, the more is the scope of corruption. In Bangalore,many such guys will only speak in the local language and only after releasing our pocket a bit, they would speak in english/hindi :) :) Jai Ho !
ReplyDelete@Jahid ...you are so right! no wonder its still done manually.
Deletethis is the state we are in.........sometimes you just feel so helpless
ReplyDeleteit makes me angry @Aliasmukhtiar .
DeleteThis is so awful!
ReplyDeleteyes it is awful...it can easily be rectified if govt wishes...but alas they are too insensitive towards its own citizens who vote them to power.
DeleteRation office is just one of those few offices where few lines . I had very time in RTO as well recently .
ReplyDeleteAll the best
Travel India
:-(( yea that R.T.O too...infact in all of these govt offices, experiences we get are really disgusting/pathetic
DeleteAgree with u...any public body is bound to give a run around...recently had a horrible experience when I had to get a gas connection transferred.. :(
ReplyDeleteOh..so sad to hear that.
DeleteNever did went through any such experience but understanding and feeling the frustation isn't that difficult...if I would have been made to do the same...nobody could have been able to stop me from swearing then and there...
ReplyDeletei wanted to beat them up too :/
DeleteOhh I had pretty bad experience at the provident fund office and not to mention the other govt run establishes like SBI ..so Disgusting it is.
ReplyDelete:-( sad to hear that
DeleteIt's pity how time and manpower are wasted in India on massive scales.
ReplyDeletethats a sad reality....a person's whole day ( not to mention the countless trips he has to make ) is wasted in these offices.
DeleteRation Card, RTO, Mamlatdar all are the same. and step in the passport office....whew.
ReplyDeleteWell buddy, we dont have another option, its India, and things work differntly here. I had to waste couple of months to get a bank account in a PSU bank, just because I was below 21 and they were not sure I could maintain 10k average every month.
ReplyDelete