Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Certificate in 30 minutes flat!

Can you believe it if somebody tells you that he got a certificate from the Thiruvananthapuram City Corporation in 30 minutes flat?

The announcement made by the applicant was initially received with cynical smiles and sarcastic comments by a group of his friends. They were replaced by whistles and expressions of disbelief when he showed the relevant papers.

How did he manage it, was the unanimous poser. He then narrated how he met Councillor Poonthura Siraj whom he knew when he went to the Corporation Office and how he helped him right from getting an application form to filling it, pasting a court fee stamp on it, remitting the necessary fee and taking it to the section concerned. The section found that the necessary information for giving the certificate had not yet been fed into the computer. That would have been enough for rejecting the application or asking the applicant to come later. But the Councillor persuaded the staff to search for the information in the files. The information they sought was the last paper in the fourth file. Once it was located, things started moving fast. The details given in the paper were promptly noted down on the stamp paper accompanying the application, checked and initialled. Then came the biggest hurdle. The official who was supposed to sign the certificate was attending an official function of the Corporation which was being graced by none other than the Local Administration Minister. But the Councillor managed to get his signature also somehow.

The incident shows that the Corporation can issue a certificate within 30 minutes but there should be a Siraj factor for it. The world would have been a better place and things would have taken place more smoothly and efficiently if the authorities succeeded in injecting at least part of the factor into the system.

K.M. Tampi

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