I also became a culprit of corruption in my DL process.

I born and grew in a  rural area in India (Bihar), while in last two decades I have spent most of my time in metropolitan cities of India and Korea in order to pursue higher studies.  It's unfortunate that I did not have even single documents of Bihar to prove myself as a resident of the state by the age of 23. I faced severe challenges in past as I could not enjoy my own rights at my native place, as I did not had their voter ID, license, passport, PAN or anything else except my name in the ration (even that name was written wrong). So, I was totally dependent on the mercy of my Bihar friends. In case, if I needed Sim card then I used to ask my friends for their voter ID. Actually, this problem was created because I do not use to visit there often and whenever there used to be election card application date.....certainly I used to be in other parts of the country. 

Today, I am willing to express my own opinion based upon certain experiences about obtaining these documents. Although, I am having Delhi voter Id card since a long time. Why I needed all these documents and the answer is very simple.....Driving license for driving vehicle, voter ID for casting my vote, Passport for visiting foreign countries, PAN for transaction and ration card for benefiting government schemes. 

I always believed that I belong to a lower middle class family but financially I was enough strong to fulfill my needs but I was not enough rich to fulfill my desires. Although, I am a very desirous person and I always dreams for big one....which often does not come true. Feel lucky and privileged to say that, despite of so many barriers I have achieved what I wish to on my own terms and condition. 

When a person stay thousand of kilo meters away from his/ her family then he often get advises from parents and relatives to not indulge in any wrong thing or they always say people will trap you. So, you don't go here and there and be care.....obviously my case was not different from rest of us. So, whenever I used to take bigger steps then I do not used to consult with family members and particularly in those cases...where I used to now their negative response. 

Currently, I am staying in Jamia Nagar and pursuing my under graduates from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College, which is located in Sheikh Sarai. It is almost at a distance of 15 kilometers from my residential address. It was quite challenge to reach college, as I used to stand on the roads of Abul Fazal Enclave to grab a rickshaw and then changing again rickshaw at Okhla head and then Bus from Sukhdev Vihar. One day, I decided to buy a bike and I knew that my family will not allow it as we always comes to know about accidents and deaths. Any way.... I purchased it and I was partially funded by my brother.

Coming to the point, I desperately needed a Driving license and I was not eligible to apply in Bihar because I did not have any supporting documents. So, I decided to apply from Delhi and then visited "License Authority" (Sheikh Sarai, New Delhi) and applied for it. Obviously, Sheikh Sarai authority is most crowded in entire Delhi as it covers most populated areas of Delhi (it’s on my assumption). I came to know that for obtaining a driving license one need to pass two exams. First one would be an exam in which DL aspirants will be asked to answer objective questions. They will ask 20 questions and for qualifying that exam it is important to 12 rights answers out of 20 questions. 

After submitting application form, I was standing in queue for my term to appear in the exam. After three hours, I got chance to appear in examination hall and then gave my best short over there. I waited for another three hours to know the result of my learning test. Unfortunately, result was in my against as I obtained 11 out of 20 which means one marks short from the target. 

Next week again I appeared before examination hall and luckily I entered that dark room within an hour. Unfortunately, again I came back home with san note as again I got same marks as I received 11 in the first exam. Although, without license I was driving my bike which was not good and I condemned it. But I did not have any alternative either. 

After some time I decided to meet those people who had already Delhi driving license. But that was not quite useful because almost every license holder told me that he got his license with the help of agent (DALAAL). I was not willing to approach any agent and reason was very simple that I do not want to adopt wrong practices in my life.

Nothing went in my favor and decided to give up as I had an opinion that I will get easily a driving license from Bihar after getting my Voter ID card.

It was the month of November 2009 when I met with a horrible experience. Just near my college, a BRT line was constructed some time back and that BRT line was constructed from buses only. I was trapped in traffic jam at Chirag Delhi and suddenly one thing in my appeared. This BRT lane is vacant and it would be wise to cross the red light with the help of BRT lane. I was in the mid of BRT then suddenly saw a police jeep was just in the front of my bike. My friend Syed Adeel Ahmed was accompanying me and suddenly he said “ab to ham gaye” we are ruined. He stoped his vehicle in front of my bike, although he was in different lane and asked Adeel to sit in his jeepsy. Another police man came and seated on back sit of my bike. He took us to Saket. He did not asked any reason for using BRT but asked for Rs-2000. I thought, yes we have done the mistake and maybe he will ask for 400 or 500 but he asked for a huge amount. I said we do not have that much amount although we had but was not convinced by us. He opened his Chalan book and started writing and against asked us to pay him cash. We said, we can’t pay that much and we tried to negotiate but we did not succeeded. Later on we came to know that we were caught by the Head of Delhi Traffic although after over handing to Saket police he moved away.

Later on this tragic took another turn as the Traffic person charged us for about Rs-3200 in his chalaan. We angrily asked him that on what basis you have charged this much? He did not reply but he did mention in that challan as it looks like some codes of Transport. He also seized my bike and asked us to collect bike from Police station after paying challan at court.

Next day I visited Patiala House Court (officially a place where people get justice). There were many lawyers, touts and other people who came to me and asked about my problem. I told them about the challan and various people shared their different ways for solving my problem. I was with one of my close friends who had some experience with the court proceedings. He also had been previously caught by the police and was fined a number of times. However, we decided not to hire any advocate and so we directly filled our challan form and waited in the queue for our turn to come  in front of judge.

After two hours my turn came and first time I was in "Katghara" for explaining my case. I was very much afraid from the judge but tried to face him boldly. Actually that judge had the power to give some concession on chalaan. I spoke for all most five minutes in front of the judge and after the talk he told me to pay only Rs-1200 and I requested him a lot for further deduction and then he made a deduction of Rs-500. Finally, I paid a fine of Rs-700 rather than Rs-3200.

But after one year of driving experience I never felt any necessary need of vehicle RC, DL, Polution checkup and so on. Because I was much familiar with traffic police and general police. If they used to stop you and if you do not have these documents then just pay Rs-20 to normal police and a note of Rs-100 to traffic police and then they will show you the green signal.

In the month of December 2009, I was in Bihar and some people were discussing about Bihar DL and I was keen interested in this matter. However, the DL process in Bihar was very tedious and time taking and then I met a tout and he asked me for 1700 and I refused, so he asked me for Rs-100 only. I gave him Rs-100 and he issued me a license within next ten minutes. But the most interesting thing was that it was issued in 2008 and I had applied it in 2009. But later on I came to know that it was a fake license. However, it was working in Delhi because no one was able to recognize it.

But again after a long time I went to Delhi License Authority and appeared in the learning exam by the support of a head Constable Police and believe me I received my learning very easily. This time the exam was computerized and there were 10 questions and six correct answer was required to get passing marks. The most interesting thing was that I was only having a mouse and keyboard but some one else was controlling my computer. What a technology friends. This process was not satisfactory but i was having mania for DL. However, after one month i went to DL office for my permanent DL and paid the fees and went to that place where they took a trial of vehicle driving. He failed me even though I could drive the bike very well. Then after a week I visited DL office  made the payment of Rs-50 and had a talk with that police for a permanent license. I thought it would be better to have a license of  two wheeler as well as four wheeler if i had to pay to that police.. I paid him as per his demand and finally I got the license for two wheeler as well as 4 wheeler..

So, how this country will progress? Will government be able to make justice with the innocent. How an innocent and poor man can get his/her license. In our great country we need to have money, only then we can surpass all the limitations. we can have every thing in our life if we have money in our pockets.

Thanks and Regards.

Tufail Ahmad

Indira Gandhi National Open University

New Delhi, India.