19 March,2014 08:35 AM IST | | Shashank Rao
Under pretext of helping applicants file documents, agents loot lottery winners by charging a bomb for simple documents like domicile certificates and notarised stamp paper
Illegal agents have trumped the Transport department's move to bypass them and taking the issue of auto rickshaw permits online.
Chosen applicants line up at an illegal agent's counter to get their documents made outside the Andheri RTO. The agents are charging exorbitant amounts to get the work done
They have now started overcharging the lucky applicants, who were chosen by the lottery system, for helping them file documents for the further procedures.
Touts are charging five times the amount for a R100 notarised affidavit, and doing it on a plain paper
The Transport authorities have received complaints that illegal agents have set up temporary counters outside RTOs and are charging exorbitant rates to get the documents made.
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At the Wadala and Andheri RTO offices, agents are seen sitting at a corner under a tree, while applicants queue up there. These people believe the agents can help them get the relevant documents to submit to the RTO authorities. Only after the proper documents are received will the applicants be issued a permit to drive an auto.
For a simple domicile certificate, which one can, on furnishing proper documents, get for a fee of Rs 100 or so. The agents are charging in thousands some ask for as much as Rs 10,000. A domicile certificate, one of the necessary documents to be submitted, proves that the driver has been a resident of Maharashtra for a minimum of 15 years.
Another example is the stamp paper used for the affidavit, for which notarisation and an official signature would take Rs 100; these agents are charging Rs 500 each. On top of this, they aren't even using the correct green coloured stamp paper.
"My affidavit was notarised on a simple plain paper," complained a lottery winner who didn't want to be named, as he feared he might lose after submitting his papers. All applicants have been told to hand in their documents in a yellow coloured file to help segregate the lot from other papers. A normal Rs 10 file is going at Rs 25 at the touts'.
