A bribeless day in RTO office !!

I had only two days before I leave to Denmark on my work assignment. As usual I was in a hurry in buying and packing stuff. Since this was my first visit to european country, I was enquiring about lifestyle and transportation in Denmark. I got to know that in Aalborg (the place in Denmark where I suppose to work for couple of months) have very good transportation system and there is no necessary to have personal transportation. Since I had lot of fun while driving car in US, I wanted to drive in Denmark too :). Apart from fun I felt that exploring any new place using car is much easier than public transport especially in westren countries. So I started collecting information from people and from the Internet. When I googled about driving in denmark and denmark's driving license, I got shock !! Inorder to get Danish driving license a person needs to spend more than 10,000 DKK !!. I said forget it... I can't spend Rs 75,000/- just to get driving licence. Later for my relief I came to know that I can drive in Denmark for a year, if I have International driving permit :)

The immediate question which came in my mind was how do I get International driving Permit(IDP) just in two days? Should I visit Indiranagar RTO office premises and pay some astronomical amount of money to agent for getting IDP? Hmmm........No...I am sick of paying bribes to those useless people for no reason. Believe me in Bangalore I even paid bribe when I went to pay my housing tax !! I decided to get my IDP without paying bribe/commission to any body. I discussed with Kedar (who was visiting denmark along with me) and he also liked the idea of getting license without paying THE BRIBE.

Since I just had two days, I did not want any delay in getting driving license. I knew that If I don't want to pay bribe, I had struggle for providing lot of documents and more trips to RTO office. I visited Karnataka's RTO web-site ( http://rto.kar.nic.in/IDP-PROCEDURE.htm )to know about the documents that are required for IDP. Luckily I had all those documents that were mentioned on the web site. I just had fill couple of forms and get the Doctor's certificate saying I am fit for driving (Ofcource not to forget about Rs 500/- fee). I informed Kedar about the documents which he needs to bring and we decided to meet in Indiranagar RTO office @ 10 AM of next day. So far so good.

Location : Indiaranagar RTO office.
Day and Time: Thursday, 10 AM.

Myself and Kedar filled up the necessary forms. We had everything except Doctor's certificate. I thought of visiting any of the hospital in CMH road, but I was not sure if those doctor's will write such certificates. Even if they give such one, is that valid? or Do I need get the only from Govt. employed Doctor ? While I was trying to find answers for above questions, Kedar found a Red Cross symbol on a Room which is just under the RTO office !! we both got into the clinic. We both looked all corners of the clinic, no patients and no typical smell of hospital. It didn't take much of time for us to understand about that clinic. It is specifically established for giving medical certificates, which is required for applying driving license !! In a corner of the "clinic" a person signing the medical certificates and collecting money. He is charging different amount for different kind of application, even though number of signatures were same across the applications. For new driving license it was Rs 30/- and for International driving license it was Rs 50/-. My eyes were searching for a board that holds the qualification of the person....I found it on his table. He did his B.Sc followed by M.B.B.S !! I guessed that he must be earning more than regular doctor who works in clinic all the day by treating patients....smart guy isn't it ?
We came out of the clinic after getting out fitness certificates and started walking towards a section in RTO office to submit our applications.

On our way to submit the applications there were many agents asking us if we need IDP, they guessed it by seeing the applications in our hand. Just for our curiosity we asked how much do we need to pay if we want to get IDP without any hassles and their answer was Rs 2000/- !! We waited about 10 mins near the submission counter and a person turned up to accept our applications. He cross checked our documents and said that we were missing Rs 1000/- valued National Savings Certificate (NSC). What the heck? I argued with him and told that it is neither mentioned on the web-site nor in the application form. He impatiently told that it is new rule and the web site is not updated. We didn't had any other choice but to get the NSC from post office. After spending 1 hour in small post office which is ground floor same complex we got NSC bonds. In that 1 hour I saw people were paying monthly Recurring deposits and getting updating their account books, that made me nostalgic. By the time we had NSC bonds in our hand, it was 12 PM and we had hardly a hour and half to submit the applications. We both rushed to counter to submit the application. The person who drove us to post office has once again started cross checking our documents and once again he made effort to find anomalies in our application. This time he gave us a big shock saying we can't apply for IDP in Indiranagar RTO office !! The reason was our addresses belongs different zone. I did not expected it, because I got my driving license from Indiranagar. But there was new RTO office opened in KR Puram and my home address belongs to KR Puram administrative premises. So he asked me to go to KR Puram for applying the IDP and Kedar to apply in Jayanagar RTO office. The agent outside the RTO office promised us to get IDP without NSC bond and in same Indiranagar RTO office. What a irony? Since we decided not spend extra money over government fees, we didn't opt for it. We had less than hour and half to apply the IDP, we immediately left Indiranagar and start riding our bikes towards our respective RTO offices.

Time : 12:30 PM
Location: KR Puram RTO office

I paid Rs 500/- as IDP fees and I was ready to submit the application. The clerk verified the documents and saw my face. He realized that I came with full preparation and not ready to pay any bribe. He asked me to get couple of signatures from higher authorities in the same office. I spent 30 minutes in Q to get those signatures and submitted the application finally around 1 PM. Clerk asked me to come next day to collect IDP. He also instructed me to collect IDP with his junior clerk as he was on leave on next day. Although in web site it is clearly mentioned that IDP will be issued on the same day of application, I didn't argue about it as it was already 1 PM.
As soon as I came out I called Kedar to know about his status. He was not as lucky as me, he is asked to submit affidavit about his identity !! He couldn't able to submit on the same day as it took time to get the affidavit. He applied it on next day morning.

Day and Time : Friday, 4PM
Location : KR Puram RTO office.

I stood in front of a clerk who is supposed to give me IDP. He gave me IDP after taking signature on a book and he starting looking at my face. From his gestures I understood that he was expecting something from my side. I acted as if I wasn't aware of such thing and came out of office. Haaa finally I had IDP in my hand and that too not paying any bribe !! I was satisfied
and the license was just in time for me. Kedar also went to collect his IDP. Although the clerk bugged him to buy military stamp (not sure if that was authentic stamp), he didn't entertain it.

Well... that was my day in government office without any bribe :)