‘They used to hint at money’

People told me to pay some amount to the MCD officials to speed up my application but I refused. After dilly-dallying on it for months they finally sanctioned the plan, says Pawan kumar.

Pawan kumar(42)
Kiran Vihar resident

HT Image

It took him nearly one year to get his building plan sanctioned, a task which officially should have taken one month.

He even filed an application under the Right to Information(RTI) Act to know the status of his building plan application but even that didn’t help in getting his plan sanctioned on time.

For 42-year-old Pawan Kumar, his decision to get his building plan made by his engineer father proved to be the biggest obstacle in getting his plan sanctioned.

“Rather than involving the middlemen and architects who are hand-in-glove with the MCD officials, I asked my father to make the plan. Whenever I used to go to the MCD office with my application, the first thing they asked me was who is the architect that has made this plan,” said Kumar.

Kumar wanted to get his plan sanctioned to construct the first and the second floors.

“They never asked for money directly but always hinted at it. I was in no position to pay any money and I told them so. When they couldn’t find any flaw in the drawings they tried to delay it by sending it from one department to another. They even forced my 80-year-old father to visit the zonal offices,” said Kumar. Fed up with the situation Kumar filed a written complaint to the MCD commissioner, too.

“Many people told me to pay some amount to the MCD officials to speed up my application but I refused. If I have not made any deviations in the plan and it is completely legal why should I pay up? After dilly-dallying on it for months they finally scrutinized my documents and my building plan was sanctioned,” Kumar said.