Government bureaucracy

 I spent another futile afternoon today trying to sort out and bring to conclusion an issue about the property tax of one of our institutions.  It has been rolling around and never making much headway for the past 10 years.  

The assessment was miscalculated in 2016. This error was pointed out to the GHMC then itself. They officially, in writing, acknowledged their mistake and assured us that the correction would be done.  Then covid happened.  Two years later we got a fresh tax invoice with the old miscalculated amount - only this invoice also contained the penalty for non-payment, and interest on it too.  

We later found out that the file never made it to the Collector's office, where the final signature was to be affixed to confirm the correction.  So much for Indian bureaucracy!  

Now the tragedy is that for the failure of the government servants, we are to pay the hefty fine.  For the past four years, every month of March, there is some offer from the municipality and they raise our hopes that this issue would be addressed and we get to clear the backlogs - what we rightly need to pay.  The only consolation this year was that the official explaining to us was polite and honest to say that nothing can be done about the correction now.  Last year the official was rude and shameless, demanding that we pay up because 'you have money!'.  

The sad part of this kind of bureaucracy is that irrespective of who does the mistake or delay, the citizen has to bear the brunt of it all, in its totality.