Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Whither e-governance?

By A. Saye Sekhar

GUNTUR FEB. 13. Whither the much-touted e-governance? The State Government keeps on bragging about setting up of e-Seva centres and creating single windows for multiple public transactions on one hand and deliberately complicates the procedures on the other. In the process, the Government is, wittingly or unwittingly, causing hindrance to the business of several public sector banks. Incredible. Yet, true.

Almost all public sector banks are vying with one another to offer loans, be it for the purchase of a house or a car or a two-wheeler or a consumer durable. Despite the simplification of rules by the public sector banks, the private banks seem to be more attractive to people.

The reason is simple. Private banks have entrusted the job of handling the loans to different independent agencies which are smart enough to contact the customer from the level of knowing the requirement to completing the documentation to delivering the loan amount at the customer's door-step. In respect of public sector banks, the State Government is becoming a stumbling block at the level of documentation.

The bank enters into a loan agreement with its customer only after the latter gets a special adhesive non-judicial stamp affixed on the agreement paper. The trouble starts exactly here. Till recently, the customers used to go to the sub-registrar's office and buy a stamp for Rs 100 in the CARD (Computer-aided Administration of Registration Department) counter. This procedure was done away with some 15 days ago.

The customer goes to the CARD counter only to be found himself lost in a mess. For, he would be informed by the official-in-charge at the counter that the customer would have to pay a challan in a bank where treasury challans are accepted. In the case of Guntur, it is the treasury branch of the State Bank of India. Cursing himself for spending a lot of time in the queue at the CARD counter, the customer goes to the treasury branch expecting that the challan would be readily available there. He would be flabbergasted to know that he culd get the challan form only at the sub-treasury office. On reaching the sub-treasury office, he would be surrounded by numerous brokers curiously enquiring with him as to what was the purpose of his arrival there.

The sub-treasury office, which is supposed to supply the challan forms free of cost, cannot do so for want of stationery. So, the customer is compelled to buy one from a broker, fill the confusing columns to the best of his ability and stand in a serpentine queue. By the time his turn comes, it might be lunch time for the clerk in the counter. If the clerk is kind enough, the customer would get the various heads of account filled in the stipulated columns by the former. After this harrowing experience, he gets back to the treasury branch of the bank only to stand in a similar queue. By the time the customer successfully remits the challan amount and runs back to the sub-registrar's office to stand again in the queue, the stamp counter would have been closed for the day, forcing the customer to make one more trip to the office the next working day.

The Inspector-General and Commissioner of Stamps and Registrations through an order on January 27, 2003 made the procedures complicated only to "avoid malpractice'' in stamp vending. Earlier, the banks used to buy stamps depending on their requirement. With the latest order of the commissioner, even the sub-registrar's office is rendered helpless. Instead of devising a method to prevent malpractice, the Government complicated the procedures by making the people run from pillar to post. Though the commissioner sugar-coated his order with a suggestion that the customers should not be put to inconvenience, he did not offer any advise on how not to trouble the people. Is it not making a mockery of the ''e-Seva'' and ''e-Governance''? As a customer puts it: "It is not e-Seva, but it is `paada seva' to the touts.''

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