My tryst with Bureaucracy
It’s not been too often that I have had a rendezvous with bureaucracy, but every time I had one, It left me with a bitter feeling. A feeling of anguish, anger and frustration creeps in to see the functioning of these government agencies; more so after my holidays at Malaysia & Singapore.
The whole incident took place for a very small affair. I had a MBA exam for which I needed to get my call letter attested from a gazetted officer. Since my school (Bhavan’s V.M.Public School, Vadodara), wasn’t functional that day, I had no choice but to go to the Narmada Bhavan. It houses the government officers here at Baroda and has a department that deals with the attestation of various documents.
After asking a few people, I finally got to know that all the attestations are done on the 2nd floor. Upon reaching the designated place, I was told to go to the 6th floor, which houses the attestation department. The place was entirely a government set up; the corners had been painted red by the pan spits that even the “Please don’t spit” in red was untraceable. After a little bit of struggle and frequent enquiring, I reached the office of the attestation officer.
I politely mentioned to him what I need the attestation for and handed over the call letter to him. To my utter surprise he said that he wasn’t authorized to attest the call letters. He was a class III officer and hence it was out of his jurisdiction. He asked me to go to the ground floor and ask for the gazetted officer on duty that day. Upon reaching the ground floor, I tried searching for a reception or a “may I help you?” counter, but couldn’t find any. Upon asking a few officials in the tourism department on the ground floor, I was again routed back to the 2nd floor, where I had been too actually before.
All the while I felt totally sick, for not being able to get the proper information. The 2nd floor housed the “mamladar’s” office – a local government official. Upon contacting his sub-ordinate in the adjacent room, he started directing me again to the 6th floor attestation department. But I was adamant this time as I could see me getting caught in the whole vicious cycle. So when I explained to him about the fact that the attestation guy on the 6th floor being a Class III officer and that it was beyond his jurisdiction, pat came the reply that it was all crap as even he was authorized to sign. By that time, I was too frustrated with the whole incident that I said, I’ll get it attested by mamladar only.
Just as I thought that it would be fine now, I was told that the Mamladar is yet to arrive in the office and I had to wait. Upon enquiring with the people who were seated besides me, I came to know that these people were waiting for over two hours!! (The time was 11.25Am). I too waited for about half an hour, but in vain. I couldn’t tolerate the scene anymore and came back to office as I was getting late.
When I think of the whole incident, I can’t stop myself compare it with the system in other developed countries. We have been labeled a developing nation for too long. I do agree that we are a big country (7th in the world in terms of area) and also have a huge population (2nd largest in the world, next after China. Expected to be the leaders by 2050), but we really have to make a beginning somewhere. I had a very small work that had to be done. I just pity the people who have important works pending with the system.
My motive of describing the whole incident is not to vent out my anger or frustration or get bad name for the system. All I want is when someone reads this, they at least think of ways of getting the system streamlined. It doesn’t require a massive effort, if each of us contributes to get things around us in shape; be it cleanliness of neighborhood or dealing with the employees at SBI or at government offices. All that we need to be is” vinamr” (In hindi, it means to be polite) ala Munnabhai.
It’s not been too often that I have had a rendezvous with bureaucracy, but every time I had one, It left me with a bitter feeling. A feeling of anguish, anger and frustration creeps in to see the functioning of these government agencies; more so after my holidays at Malaysia & Singapore.
The whole incident took place for a very small affair. I had a MBA exam for which I needed to get my call letter attested from a gazetted officer. Since my school (Bhavan’s V.M.Public School, Vadodara), wasn’t functional that day, I had no choice but to go to the Narmada Bhavan. It houses the government officers here at Baroda and has a department that deals with the attestation of various documents.
After asking a few people, I finally got to know that all the attestations are done on the 2nd floor. Upon reaching the designated place, I was told to go to the 6th floor, which houses the attestation department. The place was entirely a government set up; the corners had been painted red by the pan spits that even the “Please don’t spit” in red was untraceable. After a little bit of struggle and frequent enquiring, I reached the office of the attestation officer.
I politely mentioned to him what I need the attestation for and handed over the call letter to him. To my utter surprise he said that he wasn’t authorized to attest the call letters. He was a class III officer and hence it was out of his jurisdiction. He asked me to go to the ground floor and ask for the gazetted officer on duty that day. Upon reaching the ground floor, I tried searching for a reception or a “may I help you?” counter, but couldn’t find any. Upon asking a few officials in the tourism department on the ground floor, I was again routed back to the 2nd floor, where I had been too actually before.
All the while I felt totally sick, for not being able to get the proper information. The 2nd floor housed the “mamladar’s” office – a local government official. Upon contacting his sub-ordinate in the adjacent room, he started directing me again to the 6th floor attestation department. But I was adamant this time as I could see me getting caught in the whole vicious cycle. So when I explained to him about the fact that the attestation guy on the 6th floor being a Class III officer and that it was beyond his jurisdiction, pat came the reply that it was all crap as even he was authorized to sign. By that time, I was too frustrated with the whole incident that I said, I’ll get it attested by mamladar only.
Just as I thought that it would be fine now, I was told that the Mamladar is yet to arrive in the office and I had to wait. Upon enquiring with the people who were seated besides me, I came to know that these people were waiting for over two hours!! (The time was 11.25Am). I too waited for about half an hour, but in vain. I couldn’t tolerate the scene anymore and came back to office as I was getting late.
When I think of the whole incident, I can’t stop myself compare it with the system in other developed countries. We have been labeled a developing nation for too long. I do agree that we are a big country (7th in the world in terms of area) and also have a huge population (2nd largest in the world, next after China. Expected to be the leaders by 2050), but we really have to make a beginning somewhere. I had a very small work that had to be done. I just pity the people who have important works pending with the system.
My motive of describing the whole incident is not to vent out my anger or frustration or get bad name for the system. All I want is when someone reads this, they at least think of ways of getting the system streamlined. It doesn’t require a massive effort, if each of us contributes to get things around us in shape; be it cleanliness of neighborhood or dealing with the employees at SBI or at government offices. All that we need to be is” vinamr” (In hindi, it means to be polite) ala Munnabhai.
posted by Arijeet | 3:28 PM
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