Naan Ungal Bandolero

Bribing itself is not easy. It's too painful. One has to go through this suffering to understand this. Let me share some details around how the DTCP process works. This may hopefully help many who seem to have no idea of how these corruption networks work. If @TVKVijayHQ wanted to make money, it was too easy for him to redirect the money flow towards his own people now. Instead, he chose to openly fight this out. I, one of the victims, have a sole responsibility to support this by coming out with the details. I really hope he is successful in this mission. Many schools still run without full DTCP approval/compliance. The more they are not compliant, the more money can be extracted on continuous basis. No incentive for schools to come out and be compliant. Instead, the opposite is true. In our school, we had a goal of making it 100% compliant in all aspects and started the DTCP approval process. I was given the responsibility to take care of the process. I've interviewed 4 agents/middlemen over 6 months to decide who we go with. We've gotten offers from 80 Rs to 110 Rs per sqft. Most often it falls in the higher end of this spectrum based on experiences I gathered from experienced folks who have gone through this process. Price alone is not sufficient to pick the agent. We need to evaluate the agent's reach to power, his experience in handling previous schools, etc. Finally, picked one to pay 65L total. Building approval is finally given by the local rural/town authority. But the process is longer. The application has to go through the approval process first to the district office. If the built-up area is larger, then the application is forwarded to the Chennai head office for technical concurrence. This is where the famous PF is collected. I am still puzzled why a Chennai office is more qualified than a district office to verify the so-called technical details. Can't a district-level officer verify as per the norms? I know this is a novice question, as we know why things are structured this way. We give bribe payment first—only way to make progress in this long application process. Paid full (total of 65L) and the application is stuck for months in the Chennai office. Can't rely on the agent for everything, as the stake is too high for me. Money was given, no response from gov, I need to answer other trustees. After several months of waiting, I had to travel to Chennai and stayed in a hotel for a few days to get an appointment with the Chennai head. I usually wear a dhoti. This makes it even more easy to ill-treat. Anyways, I waited patiently as I lost sleep for many days due to this. Finally, about 2 minutes time to meet the GOD. I've begged explaining the financial state of the school, etc. Only one question was asked: "Was formality of #name# completed?" I said Yes. He asked me to leave after making a note. This is how blatant the corruption network was. Officers behaved like gods as their political managers sought help from them to trace if money was properly paid for each application. It was a hopeless time. I was fed up and never voted this time. Never imagined Tamilnadu people had a silent revolution in ballot boxes this time. hats off to them. What I learned in the process is - money can travel alone to chennai for a fee - 3% through local agents deployed for this. This way, we avoid of the risk of carrying cash. 😢 As a keen political observer, I thought 1996-2001 and 2001-2006 were decent periods on corruption. After that, hell broke I guess. It was a non-stop nightmare until Mr. Vijay struck down this trend. Somehow I feel very positive that 2026-2036 will be great for TN and has a potential of truly a model state for India. I beg Mr. Vijay not giving up this "corruption free state of TN" mission easily. @imrajmohan @svembu @sekar_vembu If this process is decentralized/localized, the cost of this bribe may be very less even if we can't eradicate the corruption totally.