I am writing to you, Mr. Kejriwal, because you have taken a number of bold initiatives to improve the living conditions of the common man during the last five years in Delhi. But we need to do much more since the previous governments have done precious little or nothing for our citizens.
Allow me to clarify, Sir. I have been living in Japan for over forty years, and I teach at Nihon University. During this period, I have had the opportunity to visit a government office for about 12-15 times to get a tax certification, new car registration, my signature or stamp certificate, and to register the acquisition of a new property. Most of these things can be done at a local government 'ward office' (the interface between people and government) which may not be more than four or five kilometers away from anyone's residence. None of these tasks takes more than five minutes to do. When you leave the ward office after five minutes, you have the certificate or document in your pocket. Moreover, you can send your proxy to get this job done. You don't need to carry any document from your home to the ward office. Every document is there--in the government's vast data network. This is accessible from every ward office. Please note that the citizen is never asked to bring any previous receipt or document. It is the job of the government to check against its vast database that the statements made by the citizen are correct. As a citizen, I don't have to get my statements, documents and affidavits attested by a third person, because none of this nonsense is required to be carried. We in India make arrogant and pompous statements about our achievements; perhaps we should learn something from this little country, Japan. One thing we surely need to learn is to trust our own citizens, that, unless proven otherwise, he/she must be presumed to be telling the truth.
Now, back to Greater Kailash, New Delhi , where I spent my childhood and where I grew up and went to school. Why is it that whatever steps our governments take, whatever policies they make, nothing really seems to work. Lots of new schemes are started with much fanfare, but the result is hardly visible. I can't even enjoy a walk to the market because there is no space on the sidewalk as cars are parked in all places. Everywhere in Greater Kailash, it looks like a huge junkyard of cars, leaving no space for people to walk. Similarly, the government's efforts in providing the two most essential things in life--clean air and water, leave much to be desired. Like fifty years ago, there is still only one hour of running water in the morning and one hour in the evening. If I do not get up at 6:00 in the morning and switch on the water motor to take water to the storage tank on the roof, that day becomes a dry day.
I applied to the DDA in March to get our house converted from leasehold to freehold. It has been six months and we are still nowhere. Finally, I got a letter from the DDA asking me to produce a 'No Dues' certificate from the co-op housing society. This certificate had already been submitted along with a host of other documents, some dating back to the early seventies. I mean, this is a joke. The DDA website proclaims that the process of application has been simplified and people can expect to get their work done really fast, and can even monitor the progress online. Well, I can actually monitor my file on the DDA website, except that there is no progress and the site shows the file has been sent to the Cooperative Societies Dept., where it is still languishing since March. The DDA took conversion charges of over six lakhs at the time of application. I have tried to follow up by going to the DDA many times, but these people are from another planet. We cannot communicate. They not only refuse to understand, they usually are outright rude or hostile to everyone, including me, a senior citizen.
Mr. Kejriwal, I know you started your political career on the promise of ridding the government of corruption and to provide a clean and citizen-friendly government. You have done a few things for the poor which I fully support. How about the middle-class people of Delhi who regularly face harassment from government bodies such as the DDA?
I know that a majority of flats/houses in Delhi are on a lease, and thereby cause considerable stress to owners. People want to convert their properties to freehold but the process and harassment by DDA/LDA is daunting and scares people away. As a person who does not shy away from taking such initiatives, I wish to suggest that as the CM of Delhi, you promulgate an ordinance stating the Delhi government is opening a window for three months wherein people who wish to get their properties converted to freehold can do so from 1 October to 31 December 2019 at a considerable discount. Property-owners can go to any PSU bank with their lease deed and a copy thereof, and pay conversion charges at the rate of Rs. 500 per square yard/meter for plots/houses, and a similarly worked out plan for leased flats. The PSU bank official can calculate the amount to be paid by looking at the lease deed which shows the actual area of plot/flat. The copy of the lease deed can be attached to the copy of the Freehold Payment Challan so generated and sent to the concerned government department by the bank. Life can be simple, like here in Japan, if you make it so.
The people of Delhi would be ever grateful to you for doing this, and will raise your stature to the level of a hero or a game-changer. If you announce this scheme in the next two weeks, you will surely be voted-in for a second time with a massive majority like the BJP government was in May of this year. Please keep it simple, Mr. Kejriwal.
The people in our democracy do not elect their representatives so that they can go and live in multi-acre palatial houses in Lutyens Delhi. They elect their representatives so that they can terminate the trappings of the imperial raj, democratize the babus and the bureaucracy, enhance the quality of life of everyone, and create conditions for a holistic development of society.
Thank you very much, Sir, for your kind attention to this issue.
Allow me to clarify, Sir. I have been living in Japan for over forty years, and I teach at Nihon University. During this period, I have had the opportunity to visit a government office for about 12-15 times to get a tax certification, new car registration, my signature or stamp certificate, and to register the acquisition of a new property. Most of these things can be done at a local government 'ward office' (the interface between people and government) which may not be more than four or five kilometers away from anyone's residence. None of these tasks takes more than five minutes to do. When you leave the ward office after five minutes, you have the certificate or document in your pocket. Moreover, you can send your proxy to get this job done. You don't need to carry any document from your home to the ward office. Every document is there--in the government's vast data network. This is accessible from every ward office. Please note that the citizen is never asked to bring any previous receipt or document. It is the job of the government to check against its vast database that the statements made by the citizen are correct. As a citizen, I don't have to get my statements, documents and affidavits attested by a third person, because none of this nonsense is required to be carried. We in India make arrogant and pompous statements about our achievements; perhaps we should learn something from this little country, Japan. One thing we surely need to learn is to trust our own citizens, that, unless proven otherwise, he/she must be presumed to be telling the truth.
Now, back to Greater Kailash, New Delhi , where I spent my childhood and where I grew up and went to school. Why is it that whatever steps our governments take, whatever policies they make, nothing really seems to work. Lots of new schemes are started with much fanfare, but the result is hardly visible. I can't even enjoy a walk to the market because there is no space on the sidewalk as cars are parked in all places. Everywhere in Greater Kailash, it looks like a huge junkyard of cars, leaving no space for people to walk. Similarly, the government's efforts in providing the two most essential things in life--clean air and water, leave much to be desired. Like fifty years ago, there is still only one hour of running water in the morning and one hour in the evening. If I do not get up at 6:00 in the morning and switch on the water motor to take water to the storage tank on the roof, that day becomes a dry day.
I applied to the DDA in March to get our house converted from leasehold to freehold. It has been six months and we are still nowhere. Finally, I got a letter from the DDA asking me to produce a 'No Dues' certificate from the co-op housing society. This certificate had already been submitted along with a host of other documents, some dating back to the early seventies. I mean, this is a joke. The DDA website proclaims that the process of application has been simplified and people can expect to get their work done really fast, and can even monitor the progress online. Well, I can actually monitor my file on the DDA website, except that there is no progress and the site shows the file has been sent to the Cooperative Societies Dept., where it is still languishing since March. The DDA took conversion charges of over six lakhs at the time of application. I have tried to follow up by going to the DDA many times, but these people are from another planet. We cannot communicate. They not only refuse to understand, they usually are outright rude or hostile to everyone, including me, a senior citizen.
Mr. Kejriwal, I know you started your political career on the promise of ridding the government of corruption and to provide a clean and citizen-friendly government. You have done a few things for the poor which I fully support. How about the middle-class people of Delhi who regularly face harassment from government bodies such as the DDA?
I know that a majority of flats/houses in Delhi are on a lease, and thereby cause considerable stress to owners. People want to convert their properties to freehold but the process and harassment by DDA/LDA is daunting and scares people away. As a person who does not shy away from taking such initiatives, I wish to suggest that as the CM of Delhi, you promulgate an ordinance stating the Delhi government is opening a window for three months wherein people who wish to get their properties converted to freehold can do so from 1 October to 31 December 2019 at a considerable discount. Property-owners can go to any PSU bank with their lease deed and a copy thereof, and pay conversion charges at the rate of Rs. 500 per square yard/meter for plots/houses, and a similarly worked out plan for leased flats. The PSU bank official can calculate the amount to be paid by looking at the lease deed which shows the actual area of plot/flat. The copy of the lease deed can be attached to the copy of the Freehold Payment Challan so generated and sent to the concerned government department by the bank. Life can be simple, like here in Japan, if you make it so.
The people of Delhi would be ever grateful to you for doing this, and will raise your stature to the level of a hero or a game-changer. If you announce this scheme in the next two weeks, you will surely be voted-in for a second time with a massive majority like the BJP government was in May of this year. Please keep it simple, Mr. Kejriwal.
The people in our democracy do not elect their representatives so that they can go and live in multi-acre palatial houses in Lutyens Delhi. They elect their representatives so that they can terminate the trappings of the imperial raj, democratize the babus and the bureaucracy, enhance the quality of life of everyone, and create conditions for a holistic development of society.
Thank you very much, Sir, for your kind attention to this issue.
