Harassment unlimited
Friday, 29 October 2010
Shamsher Chowdhury
LIVING in this country is one of the most difficult propositions. If you are to make the most of it you have to be basically devoid of all kinds of sense and sensibility. For good or for worse, everything moves at a snail's speed. Living here entails all kinds of harassment. Most of these harassment are avoidable given the due sincerity and commitment on the part of the administration. The major sources of harassment are the government organizations engaged in providing services of all nature to the public. The worst of all, it looks as though we the people have no other alternative but to accept it as fate accompli.
The most notorious of all such organizations is the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) where you get your vehicles registered and obtain yearly renewals of all other related documents. The entire organization is run by some self-appointed private agents who get your documents ready at a reasonable period of time in consideration for a certain fee what they call, "related expenses". We are told you can even get a driving license in the shortest possible time in the same manner. Once out of sheer anger, we tried to break through the "established system". We were referred to a midlevel officer by one of our relations, who was working in a responsible position with RAB. Despite the fact that we were received well and offered tea it took us over eight hours to do the job. We narrated this story to one of our former colleagues who is now retired and used to work with this writer in an international organization. Far from sympathizing with our predicament he burst into laughter and told us that we were living in fool's paradise He told us that all we need to do is to add 500 takas as expenses to the total amount of charges as fixed by the government and then send the driver and the car to him and that he would direct him to the right place and then everything will fall in place and the job will be completed without any hiccups whatsoever.
Even to this day we have not been able to figure out as to how and from where these ancient looking buses and the tempos get their fitness certificates where as private cars in quite fit and road worthy conditions have to pay graft for each vehicle anywhere between two and four hundred takas. You see every year you have to pass through this painful drill. The other day we asked a friend of ours a senior bureaucrat now retired asking as to how difficult it is to bring about changes for better in the administration of BRTA making it more effective and people friendly? He said: "You see, it is not difficult it is just that the concerned authorities are just not interested. You know why? You see the "system" has been in operation for decades and it has become a part and parcel of our day to day to living. It is little too unfortunate for you now that you have become somewhat disabled and weighed down by multiple illnesses."
A similar scenario exists with the Dhaka Municipal Corporation (DCC). We know of our own experience dealing with DCC. Believe us it is one of the notorious places that we have come across in the capital city. The system here is twice more complicated. Nagar Bhaban a majestic building of architectural grandeur houses one of the most notorious of public service organizations of the country. We were there one day for some work thereafter we promised to ourselves never to go there again. This writer has worked for 32 years in senior administrative positions in as many as five or six international organizations and we had no clue as to how the outfit works. Take for instance, there are different ways and means you can increase or decrease the taxes payable to the government exchequer for the similar kinds of properties of equal value owned by an individual, yet taxes assessed differ from individual to individual.
Once we received a notice of auction on our property since there were huge sums of taxes due against our name. We rushed to see the officer in a state of panic. Lo and behold soon as he saw us the first thing he told us is that we should not have come since we are elderly and have difficulty in movement and that we should have asked him to come to our place. He then had us seated and his first action was to tear off the notice right in front of us and asked us to relax. The rest is a long story which I do not wish to narrate. We learnt the ropes the hard way. Through the intervention of a middle man identified by the very gentleman the matter was resolved amicably. To this day we remain puzzled, but one thing for sure we are not going to that monstrous building any more. We shall stick to the middle man. We leave it to our readers to guess as to what is the story. This is just the tip of the ice berg, one could write volumes about multiple dimensions of corruption at the DCC.
Similar horrifying stories exist with departments of power and water supply.
Everywhere you look around for state provided services you cannot but be horrified. Far from providing services, these have become instruments of harassment and misery for the people at large. You see living here is a real challenge to your mental health. The situation has come to such a stage that it reminds us of a popular saying, "Shut up or put up". To add to all this political pollution has also added yet another dimension to the overall harassment of the people.
You see living in this country can be very painful particularly for people with a conscience. If you happen to be honest, retired and burdened by old age (sixty plus), be rest assured you will find it extremely difficult to keep your sanity. It is harassment every step of the way.
E-mail:
chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com
LIVING in this country is one of the most difficult propositions. If you are to make the most of it you have to be basically devoid of all kinds of sense and sensibility. For good or for worse, everything moves at a snail's speed. Living here entails all kinds of harassment. Most of these harassment are avoidable given the due sincerity and commitment on the part of the administration. The major sources of harassment are the government organizations engaged in providing services of all nature to the public. The worst of all, it looks as though we the people have no other alternative but to accept it as fate accompli.
The most notorious of all such organizations is the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) where you get your vehicles registered and obtain yearly renewals of all other related documents. The entire organization is run by some self-appointed private agents who get your documents ready at a reasonable period of time in consideration for a certain fee what they call, "related expenses". We are told you can even get a driving license in the shortest possible time in the same manner. Once out of sheer anger, we tried to break through the "established system". We were referred to a midlevel officer by one of our relations, who was working in a responsible position with RAB. Despite the fact that we were received well and offered tea it took us over eight hours to do the job. We narrated this story to one of our former colleagues who is now retired and used to work with this writer in an international organization. Far from sympathizing with our predicament he burst into laughter and told us that we were living in fool's paradise He told us that all we need to do is to add 500 takas as expenses to the total amount of charges as fixed by the government and then send the driver and the car to him and that he would direct him to the right place and then everything will fall in place and the job will be completed without any hiccups whatsoever.
Even to this day we have not been able to figure out as to how and from where these ancient looking buses and the tempos get their fitness certificates where as private cars in quite fit and road worthy conditions have to pay graft for each vehicle anywhere between two and four hundred takas. You see every year you have to pass through this painful drill. The other day we asked a friend of ours a senior bureaucrat now retired asking as to how difficult it is to bring about changes for better in the administration of BRTA making it more effective and people friendly? He said: "You see, it is not difficult it is just that the concerned authorities are just not interested. You know why? You see the "system" has been in operation for decades and it has become a part and parcel of our day to day to living. It is little too unfortunate for you now that you have become somewhat disabled and weighed down by multiple illnesses."
A similar scenario exists with the Dhaka Municipal Corporation (DCC). We know of our own experience dealing with DCC. Believe us it is one of the notorious places that we have come across in the capital city. The system here is twice more complicated. Nagar Bhaban a majestic building of architectural grandeur houses one of the most notorious of public service organizations of the country. We were there one day for some work thereafter we promised to ourselves never to go there again. This writer has worked for 32 years in senior administrative positions in as many as five or six international organizations and we had no clue as to how the outfit works. Take for instance, there are different ways and means you can increase or decrease the taxes payable to the government exchequer for the similar kinds of properties of equal value owned by an individual, yet taxes assessed differ from individual to individual.
Once we received a notice of auction on our property since there were huge sums of taxes due against our name. We rushed to see the officer in a state of panic. Lo and behold soon as he saw us the first thing he told us is that we should not have come since we are elderly and have difficulty in movement and that we should have asked him to come to our place. He then had us seated and his first action was to tear off the notice right in front of us and asked us to relax. The rest is a long story which I do not wish to narrate. We learnt the ropes the hard way. Through the intervention of a middle man identified by the very gentleman the matter was resolved amicably. To this day we remain puzzled, but one thing for sure we are not going to that monstrous building any more. We shall stick to the middle man. We leave it to our readers to guess as to what is the story. This is just the tip of the ice berg, one could write volumes about multiple dimensions of corruption at the DCC.
Similar horrifying stories exist with departments of power and water supply.
Everywhere you look around for state provided services you cannot but be horrified. Far from providing services, these have become instruments of harassment and misery for the people at large. You see living here is a real challenge to your mental health. The situation has come to such a stage that it reminds us of a popular saying, "Shut up or put up". To add to all this political pollution has also added yet another dimension to the overall harassment of the people.
You see living in this country can be very painful particularly for people with a conscience. If you happen to be honest, retired and burdened by old age (sixty plus), be rest assured you will find it extremely difficult to keep your sanity. It is harassment every step of the way.
E-mail:
chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com