Panchayat staffer in soup over ‘bribe video’

CHENNAI: A clerical employee in the Medavakkam village panchayat found himself in trouble after a video clip allegedly showing him demanding a bribe from a local resident was shared on social media on Monday.
The video, shared by social activism group Arappor Iyakkam, shows the clerk Babu demanding Rs 5,000 as “development charges” in order to initiate property tax payment. The video was recorded using a mobile phone camera.

In the clip, the resident is told that property tax dues of a little over Rs 2,500 were pending. When the resident sought to pay the dues, Babu proceeds to ask for development charges. The resident then asks what this meant to which Babu replies, “Bring along someone who knows what development charges mean.”

TOI spoke to the resident who shot the clip who requested anonymity. “The incident happened when I visited the panchayat office with adequate documents, including construction permit notice and sale deeds. The flat promoter had told me that paying Rs 5,000 as bribe was the norm. But I wanted to check for myself if I could get the procedure done without having to pay the bribe,” he said.

The resident claimed that since he decided not to pay the bribe to the staffer, his property tax dues have not been collected yet. “The video was shot over a month ago. The clerk told me he wanted to verify records. For three other flat owners in my apartment complex, no such process was needed because they paid the bribe,” he added.

TOI reached out to the Medavakkam village panchayat office where a staffer said that Babu was not in office. The staffer refused to provide Babu’s personal contact number. TOI rang the St Thomas Mount block development office, under whose jurisdiction the Medavakkam village panchayat functions, and asked if development charges were collected in village panchayats. After much hesitation, a staffer at the block development office informed that “no such charge” was to be collected. “The concerned person can speak to the panchayat officer and come to a compromise. There are no development charges,” he said.

Arappor Iyakkam’s convener, Jayaram Venkatesan, told TOI that he had forwarded the video clip along with a complaint letter to the Kancheepuram district collector. “For different services, different rates have been fixed. Bribes are very common in urban and rural local bodies. The only solution is to pull up an officer if it emerges that an essential service has been denied to a resident,” Venkatesan said.