| A: Details of the government organisation |
| 1. Name of government organisation: |
Maharashtra Police |
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| 2. State: |
Maharashtra |
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| 3. City: |
Mumbai |
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| 4. Department: |
Passport - Police verification |
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| 5. Location: |
Kandivli (E), Samta Nagar |
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| 6. Designation of government officer involved: |
Police Inspector |
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| 8. Address of the government organisation: |
Samta Nagar Police Station, Kandivli(E), Mumbai 400101 |
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| B: My Complaint Details |
| 1. Period of incident: |
2010 - Jan |
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| 2. Services that were sought: |
For passport, police verification to be carried out. Received call to reach police station to meet police and submit documents. |
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| 3. Problem/s I faced: |
It's a routine problem, encountered in past as well. The concerned person, after filling out necessary details, asked money for 'chai pani'. Not for 'himself' but for the havaldar who would have otherwise come to home. If money not given, he would keep documents for longer time and delay passport. |
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| 4. Bribe amount: |
At least 150 Rs, covering 'zeroxing' charges as well.Application form does not mention these charge |
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| 5 a. Was the bribe paid? |
NOPE. In fact, as if it was a pentalty, he asked to submit 5-6 unnecessary zerox copies of my form and a blank form, which I promptly submitted. |
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| 5 b. Could the work have been done without paying the bribe? If so, how? |
Yes. But I was informed that this would delay my process as now a police would need to come to my place for verification purpose. |
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| 6. Result: |
Not sure if other people standing behind me also did the same. However, this seems to be a routine problem at all police stations doing 'passport verification'. Impacts our national security. |
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| C: Additional Informtion attached |
| Details of Content: |
Nil
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| D: My Suggestions |
| 1. For head of government department: |
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| Suggestion 1: |
Aparently, many instances talk about feeding money to superiors sitting at top! Police should have Service Level Agreement of clearing each passport in a specified time and these should be monitored. Senior officials should frequently visit the site where this 'verification' is carried out in the police station. Senior officials should put a note outside each of police stations and their departments saying that if any police person asks for bribe, it should be brought to the notice of the superiors. Look into this process of police verification, which has become nuisance for many law abiding citizens which might become loop hole for criminals (by bribing if they can get police clearene
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| 2. For the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) / Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): |
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| Suggestion 1: |
It's not a one off incident. It's applicable in all police stations. This is not compaint against a single police inspector, it is against the entire process of police verification for the purposes of passport. I think this is the process where state government and central government interact with each other. More over, it is not clear if police department gets any revenue per se for conducting this activity (since they claim, it has to be given for xeroxing etc. purposes and 'chai pani'). It's really childish that a police person comes to your home for a passport of 6 months old infant and then asks for taking him/her to the police station for 'verification
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| Suggestion 2: |
Automation of police records and automation of verfication process. Reduces lot of manual work, increases efficiency, bribe taking/giving is curbed
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| 3. For other citizens: |
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| Suggestion 1: |
Tell the police inspector that all the money charged are covered under Passport Appication fees. Nowhere it mentions about paying money for making zeroxes or for chai-pani of the hawaldar. If all of us do not pay the money, he will 'have to' clear passports without taking money.
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| E: I am not ready to reveal contact details because |
| Passport getting delayed. Police will start harassing.Police interact day in and day out with gundas and they can get away with it we have seen it in high profile murder cases where justice took 18yrs |
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| Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tuesday, March 09, 2010 |
