03-09-2005, 11:54 PM
<!--emo&:cool--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/specool.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='specool.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Gloom in S-T Dept after tape expose </b>
Staff Reporter/ New Delhi
'Sting' was in the air at the Sales Tax Department on Wednesday following an <b>expose by a private news channel that caught 82 employees of the department accepting bribes on camera</b>.
The inside and outside of the 10-storey building were dotted with groups of people - employees, tax payers and gossip mongers alike - all talking about the same thing: The sting operation unearthing the all-pervasive under-the-table transactions going on openly in the department.
The building wore a deserted look, especially floors four, six, seven and eight where the operation was carried out in the past week. Though officers were seen attending to people in some wards, the general mood was sombre.
Each person who entered the building was being peered at with a degree of suspicion. "Are they TV walas? Is there a camera hidden inside that folder or pen?"
Public reaction on the operation varied. While majority believed that the role of the media had been positive so far as bring the issue to the fore was concerned, what after this was the question that was on many minds. "The situation here was so bad that if the lift operator saw a Rs 20 note left in one's pocket on the way out, he would shamelessly ask for it as elevator tip. The operation has come as a real relief," said Ravi Prakash, a businessman.
In almost absolute agreement, Sarita Kumar said, "Today is the first time that I have got my work done and am taking back all the money I got with me."
"After coming here, I had to unlearn all the laws and principals I learnt in CA classes. All I was required to know was how much to pay whom for getting my job done," said Chartered Accountant AK Sharma.
Will the furore that has been raked up get erased from public memory as time passes or will there be a permanent solution, seemed to be the universal query.
"The government is talking of installing CCTVs in the department building but who will be behind the cameras is the question. After all, this was going on with vigilance officials sitting pretty under the same roof," said Rakesh Madan, a businessman.Â
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Staff Reporter/ New Delhi
'Sting' was in the air at the Sales Tax Department on Wednesday following an <b>expose by a private news channel that caught 82 employees of the department accepting bribes on camera</b>.
The inside and outside of the 10-storey building were dotted with groups of people - employees, tax payers and gossip mongers alike - all talking about the same thing: The sting operation unearthing the all-pervasive under-the-table transactions going on openly in the department.
The building wore a deserted look, especially floors four, six, seven and eight where the operation was carried out in the past week. Though officers were seen attending to people in some wards, the general mood was sombre.
Each person who entered the building was being peered at with a degree of suspicion. "Are they TV walas? Is there a camera hidden inside that folder or pen?"
Public reaction on the operation varied. While majority believed that the role of the media had been positive so far as bring the issue to the fore was concerned, what after this was the question that was on many minds. "The situation here was so bad that if the lift operator saw a Rs 20 note left in one's pocket on the way out, he would shamelessly ask for it as elevator tip. The operation has come as a real relief," said Ravi Prakash, a businessman.
In almost absolute agreement, Sarita Kumar said, "Today is the first time that I have got my work done and am taking back all the money I got with me."
"After coming here, I had to unlearn all the laws and principals I learnt in CA classes. All I was required to know was how much to pay whom for getting my job done," said Chartered Accountant AK Sharma.
Will the furore that has been raked up get erased from public memory as time passes or will there be a permanent solution, seemed to be the universal query.
"The government is talking of installing CCTVs in the department building but who will be behind the cameras is the question. After all, this was going on with vigilance officials sitting pretty under the same roof," said Rakesh Madan, a businessman.Â
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