Why, but why?

We had to get a new RC (registration certificate) for our car, having lost the old one under circs which I shall indignantly blog about soon. In order to do that, you have to get a certificate from the Transport Department that there are no unpaid challans or tickets against your car. Yesterday, I and A being crazy-busy, my husband despatched our driver to get the certificate. The driver had a good time. First he went to an office of the transport department near Teen Murti. From there he was asked to go somewhere in old Delhi. From there he was further shunted on to an office near the Hyatt ( which is the other end of town). Having left at 10 am, he finally got a piece of paper at 4:30 p.m. When he at long last came back with it triumphantly to my husband, the paper read, "This car has not been reported to be stolen"!

Why in a so-called IT superpower, are these documents and records not maintained online, so that any transport department can access them and print them out?

Why in a country with so many people, does the government not appoint HR professionals who can tell every clerk what his or her job is?

Why do each department's officials believe the work is to be done by some other department which is always far away and on a tea break/ about to close when you reach it?

Today my husband had to go file for a new RC. First he made me sign endless duplicates of all kinds of papers - my signing arm is now numb, and I wouldn't have known if I was signing away the property rights to the Taj Mahal by the end of the process. Then when he reached the transport office, it turned out he needed to have an affidavit signed by me and verified by a notary public. For the benefit of those lucky sods who've never had to deal with them, a notary public is some kind of legal person who hangs around near courts and government offices and gets paid for signing on papers which could say anything, from the fact that you're the President of the country to the fact that China has now been annexed by India - they never even look at what they're signing.

Luckily I had a meeting which was close to the Transport office so my husband did not have to chase any wild geese halfway across Delhi.

Why an affidavit when we have a signed police report of the missing RC?

Why a notary public who doesn't know us from Adam?

Why???

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