Every file has a price: Citizens echo legislator BR Patil's explosive bribery allegations

Time of India

3 hours ago

Bengaluru: Senior Congress legislator BR Patil's explosive allegations on rampant bribery in allotment of govt houses has triggered a wave of public outrage across the state, with citizens and activists saying the rot runs deep across multiple departments and at every level of governance.
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Although Congress brass shrugged off Patil's remarks as "baseless," his accusations appear to have struck a chord with those who frequently encounter corruption in their everyday dealings with the govt.
"If a senior governing party MLA is raising an alarm, the govt should investigate it and not brush it under the carpet," said Prof Viswas Shetty, a political observer. "The silence indicates either complicity or apathy."
Ordinary citizens say the system is stacked against them. Lakshmavva, a widow from Bengaluru Rural, who tried to apply for a house under a govt scheme, said: "Every time I asked, they said some document was missing. But once I paid Rs 3,000 to a middleman, my application was cleared in a day."
The problem, activists say, lies in a deeply entrenched bribe culture across taluk, revenue inspector, village accountants, and sub-registrar offices — critical points of contact for land records, caste and income certificates and pensions among other essential services.
Social activists say the biggest bribe markets are land, housing, and property-related departments. "Land mutation, caste certificates, widow pensions — every file has a price," said SR Prakash, a transparency activist from Chikkamagaluru. "If a file moves without a bribe, it's an exception. People no longer even ask whether they'll have to pay — they just ask how much."
In Hassan, autorickshaw driver Rafiq Ahmed said, "They told me everything was free.
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But when I went to the local office, they said they had to 'manage' the file. I had to borrow the money."
Dr Indira Hiremath, who heads a civic NGO in Davanagere, said, "Bribes are no longer under-the-table. There are fixed rates, often facilitated by brokers who operate with the knowledge of staff. The system isn't broken — it is rigged."
Prof SL Nayak, a retired academician, said an investigation would expose the rot that touches every taluk and district.
"It would also invite backlash from within the system," he said, while AP Girish, a retired Lokayukta SP, said it isn't a case of just a "few bad apples". "This is institutionalised corruption," he said. "Every rung of the bureaucracy has been compromised. The political class has allowed this to fester by looking the other way.
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Dr Sharath Kushalappa, an advocate, said it is pointless to blame citizens for paying bribes since "the system offers them no choice". "It's time the govt ordered a time-bound investigation and began suspending errant officials," Kushalappa said.
Karnataka Lokayukta, already under fire for alleged extortion by some of its officials, is yet to take effective action to discourage corruption in govt offices.