BMC - again

So I went to the Municipal office again on the 12th the concerned officer was ahem "visiting the wards" so then I went to office and then went again at 3pm by then he was in a "meeting".

I finally did see him as he came back to his office at 4:30pm (BTW he left office at 4:35pm, if I was his supervisor I would have....), when I asked him on what was the status of my application he nonchalantly said submit it and I will look at it. Hello buddy I did submit it last week, you haven't looked at it yet?

And he said "oh it was Diwali last week", ok that was understandable after all this was a government department and they celebrate this festival more than the common man.

"Ok can I come next week?" I said, and he said its ok you can call and find out the status.

You must be laughing your head off right now saying yeah right call him. Well I believed him and off I went on Wednesday I called and called on Tuesday and Wednesday and then asked my mom to drop in and find out what he was up to, she called me later to tell he was on "leave".

ha ha, Diwali holidays weren't enough!?

Trip to the BMC

BMC is Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika - Bombay Municipal office. As mentioned in the previous post I went to get a fresh copy out of my birth certificate.

Since there was an error in the original, I had to get it rectified or else I would have a problem duing legalization. Anyways three officers said immpossible, a day before I had read that under the Birth and Death Registration (BDR) Act of 1969 section 15 an error can be fixed.

For instance "Ram Lal" can be made "Ram" but none of these officers where even willing to consider, so what is the problem well the procedure used to rectify this error is so long they would rather not go through it.

Please note however if you have deliberately changed your name to something else using a gazette or court order then your birth record will never be changed. Because name change applies to all documents in the future and no document from your past will reflect the new name.

I went to the municipal office or local gementee :) hoping that since I last visited it around 1992 they would have changed. I think at the lower rung of the ladder most of them are still rude. Still clining to the fact that we are here to service them and not the other way around.

Anyways, one thing I have realised in the last 2 years in most government offices there are some very educated officers and not only do they speak intelligently but politely. Its a real pleasure meeting these gems really makes me proud to know that we are making progress.

How can we provide excellent customer service the world over by way of Indian call centers but fail so miserably to treat our own people better?