Guest column: India can learn a lot from the West

There is a lot to emulate from advanced countries, should bureaucrats want to make changes for the better; the public keeps suffering due to primitive and cumbersome practices forcing them to engage corrupt middlemen

In the pre-Covid days, ministers and bureaucrats would go on foreign jaunts for study tours or conferences. However, it seems little has been learnt from these trips as hardly anything has been done to make our system of working more public friendly.

I could not plan a trip to India due to Covid restrictions and in the meantime my passport expired. I applied for renewal at the Indian Consulate and their outsourced agency demanded a long list of documents — an online application, a recent photo, notarised copies of my Aadhaar, PAN, Permanent Residency Card and my landing document (Representative Image/HT File)

The inadequacies of the systems in place in India were recently thrown into sharp relief when we bought a property in a scenic Canadian town, around 300km away from our house in Vancouver. After looking at a few properties that were on sale through a local realtor, we shortlisted the most suitable ones. After returning to Vancouver, we made an offer on a property that sat on the foothills of snow-covered mountains, next to a lake. This was done online. Our realtor and lawyer confirmed the title of the property, inspections, last date for closing the deal and tendered the advance deposit through e-mails.

Meanwhile, we arranged our mortgage, made the final payment through our lawyer, which included different taxes. On the closing day, the property was transferred in our name electronically in the records of local municipality (City). Once the ownership changed, we contacted the existing tenants, and signed a new tenancy agreement online. It goes without saying that the same transaction would have been extremely cumbersome in India.

I noticed a similar efficiency when we bought a car. We selected a car and went to the dealership at an appointed time. An insurance company broker was also present. The payment was made through a bank draft. The insurance company representative entered all the details of the vehicle in his records, which are also made available to government agencies. He insured our vehicle on the spot and issued a new license plate, which we fitted on our car before driving home. The whole process was over in around two hours. No applications had to be filled, nor did we attach notarised copies of our Aadhaar Card, PAN Card or photographs. We only showed our driving licence, which has our address too. We did not have to visit the Regional Licensing Authority office or schedule multiple visits to get the new registration certificate, or for a high-security number plate.

When my local driving licence expired, I booked an appointment for renewal. On the given date and time, I visited the licensing office where a friendly employee asked me two questions — “Have you any medical conditions ? Is there any change of address ? ” Then I was told to look into the web camera for the photograph. In no time, I was issued a printout of a temporary driving licence and told that the regular driving licence will be mailed to me within four weeks, but I got it in post within two weeks. Efficiency par excellence!

Unfortunately, the same was not seen when I had to renew my passport. I could not plan a trip to India due to Covid restrictions and in the meantime my passport expired. I applied for renewal at the Indian Consulate and their outsourced agency demanded a long list of documents — an online application, a recent photo, notarised copies of my Aadhaar, PAN, Permanent Residency Card and my landing document.

The last demand was absurd as the landing document is carried by a new immigrant on his first visit to Canada. On the basis of which, Canadian authorities replace it with a PR Card promptly. I haven’t needed the landing document since 2000, I wonder why the Indian Government was interested in my landing document to renew my Indian Passport, especially when I possess a PR card. After three weeks, I received an email saying that my police inquiry had been forwarded to the police station nearest to my Chandigarh home. It also said that if nothing is heard within a few weeks, I should get in touch with the local police station. Can anyone explain the rationale of this email?

There is a lot to emulate from advanced countries, should bureaucrats want to make changes for the better. Meanwhile, the public keeps suffering due to primitive and cumbersome practices forcing them to engage corrupt middlemen.

wcdpsbajwa@gmail.com

(The writer is a Canada-based freelance contributor)