After obtaining my visa which involved a lot drama, the stage was all set to depart to US for my masters. There was so many things to prepare for before leaving. Things were hard and was really cramped for time. One of the agenda was to obtain IDP, international driving permit. On a Saturday I went to Rajajinagar RTO, and produced all the documents with a application fee of 500 /- . I had made sure that I had national savings certificate as the officer had informed me that a national savings certificate is necessary to obtain IDP on my previous visits. I was indeed very happy to go and get my IDP , as I had made sure I had all the documents and there was no way the officer can ask me for a bribery. Once I approached the officer, and produced him all the required documents, the officer rejected the savings certificate even before he could look at it and asked me for bribery of 800/- with great assuredness and with a smile on his swarthy face. This was my third visit to him and each time I met him I went back to get the documents so that I do not have to bribe him. But here I was in vain to avoid bribery. With so little time left on my hands I could not think of any other way except to pay him the bribe. Even today after a year of this incident I wonder if I could have fought against this bribery. But how do I fight it? One way of fighting it would have been to report to higher authorities, which may or may not have succeeded. But thinking about why the officer asked for bribery? One answer could be he is being paid less.
I always wonder which solutions will work better to eliminate bribery. Pay more money to these officers or smack them when he asks for bribery?
