(Picture courtesy: Livemint.com)
"Government" - A word that is heard all around the globe. Almost everywhere, it is formed by the citizens of the respective country. For its smooth functioning and convenience of the general public, it sets up various institutions whose sole purpose is to serve people. So, I am going to write about my experiences of the first visit in one such institution in this few minute read.
Hello Steemians! This is my second post in this platform (introduce-yourself being the first one). I hope I do not make you feel bored all way long.
How I started?
So, it was a fine cloudy day, when I decided to visit the District Transport Office (DTO) in our region. After hearing a lot about the corruption and all these things in the government offices since childhood through the mouth of elders, I was quite excited to experience the truthfulness of it on my own. It was the day when my documents for learners' driving licence were to be verified. I asked one of my friend the timing and he told me confusingly that the verification counter opens early (at about 9:30) in the morning. So, I started my journey on my bicycle that very morning. I reached on time. I heard a lot about brokers who took a huge amount of money to get you a driving licence by some illegal means. I enquired some guys standing out there in the office premises and immediately came in touch with one. I enquired the prices(though I was gonna do the job on my own) and got to know that they took around INR 5000 for a two wheeler licence. After knowing about it, I rushed to the counter (I knew the room number, so I didn't ask anyone) and damn.. the door was locked. This gave me the feeling of being in a government office for the first time. I waited there for some minutes and people with the same purpose started gathering around. It was quite hot up there and no provisions were there even for a ceiling fan.🙄
The wait:
At about 10:00, a man arrived with the key of that room. We once again met with disappointment after knowing that he wasn't the one we had been waiting for. Afterwards, I started chit-chat with the people present there and met a guy who made me realise that I didn't have the acknowledgement page along with my documents. When I told him about it, he told me that he too didn't have one when he came and just got it printed out from a nearby shop at INR 100 (approx $1.3) . I was like, damn it, that much money and that too for a print out? 😐 I knew the links through which I can get that page in pdf format, so I started browsing through several pages in my phone and finally got it under one of the category. I downloaded it and hurried back to the office with its print-out in hand.
Arrival of officer and getting the work done:
Our wait continued.. it was like 10:30, and still there was no sign of the guy for whom we all were waiting. Knowing that he might be there any moment, we decided quickly to get ourselves in a queue (Yeah, people still believe in queues😁). Finally we were reported that the officer for whom we were eagerly waiting has arrived and is coming to the counter. At around 10:50, he arrived (at this moment, I strongly felt that I was in a government office. You know why😜 ). So, as I entered the counter to verify my documents, I came to know that I needed a online copy of something of which I had taken with me a manual copy. So, I hurried down the road to get it printed and got back in a few seconds. The job was finally done after so many round trips of the staircases.
Now, I was redirected to the payment counter where I paid the fee and got myself a receipt. Again, it was time for biometrics submission. I went straight to the room where it was being done and waited for my turn. While I was waiting there, two people were asking the young guy responsible for the data entry, various types or irrelevant questions. He enquired their documents and at the first glance came to know that they had paid the brokers and now the brokers redirected them to him which made them ask those questions. There the young guy spoke out the most beautiful words in local language (Assamese) for which my ears were longing to hear. I quote him exactly as follows:
"Aami aapunalukor baabe he aasu, broker r baabe nohoi. Kaam dibo broker k aaru digdaar dibo aamak"
which roughly translates to something like this in English:
"We are here for you all, not for the brokers. They give the job to the brokers and then frustrate us."
I realised for a moment that such employees still exists in the government offices which has always been a victim of corruption and restored my faith on goodwill once again. Presence of such an employee was like the diamond in a pile of graphite.
Getting my work done and acquiring the learners' licence:
Finally, it was my turn to sit in front of webcam and pose for a photo to be used on my driving licence. So, the job was done well and the only thing left was to go and sit in a test the next day and recognise some traffic symbols to prove myself eligible for the learners' licence. Taking a deep breath, I came out from the office and went straight to the Post Office where I had some work to do. Getting it done, I pulled myself on the bicycle seat and came straight towards my room with a lot of exciting and unique memories which will surely last me a lifetime.
So, only wait that was left was for the test the next day for which I was excited even more. Luckily, I passed it as of now and got my learners' licence with six months of validity the very same day of the test.
So, this was all about the first experiences on getting my work done in any government office in India. I hope I didn't bore you. 🙂
If you too have some experiences similar to this one, do let me know by forking the link in the comments.
Have a great time ahead.
Namaste. :)