This March, when I decided to relocate to Dehradun, my worry was not about getting my daughter admitted to a good school. It was not about finding a good house or getting a gas connection. It was neither about having to get a new circle of friends. It was definitely not about any employment chances. No you are wrong, I was not getting sleepless nights about the extreme cold of Dehradun. And the chronic load shedding was very manageable in my mind.
My biggest worry was about getting a valid proof of residence. Ask anyone in India who has shifted residence how difficult it is to get one. And specially if you are moving into a new city. School admission, adjusting to new environment and new people....everything pales into comparison with "Proof of Residence" the three dreaded words.
You want a new telephone connection, you need proof of residence; you want to open a new bank account, do you have proof of residence, sir; gas connection not a problem just show us your proof of residence; renew your driving license, the government has made it easy and no need to look for touts just show us the proof of residence. Want to change address for your existing bank account or credit card, of course you need proof of residence.
Those of you who have not undergone this process or my friends who do not live in India, this must be seeming a bit of a joke. It is not my friends. Let me tell you how I twisted myself into knots trying to acquire proof of residence. For the sake of simplicity let me call it POR.
My first few days in Doon were at my parents house, I am lucky that I have their support network here. But with my expat accumulated furniture on its way, I had to soon look for space. So I quickly got myself a rented apartment and got a proper rent agreement drawn up and attested and notarised on stamp paper. Armed with the document I went to get local SIM numbers. My first shock. Besides the rent agreement, I need a no objection affidavit from my landlord that he has no objection to me having a SIM card. And of course he has no objection to my buying potatoes everyday too!!! I mean, what is this for? My landlord lives in Chandigarh. I gotta call him. Ask him to give me a NOC on stamp paper and courier it to me!!! If I was the landlord, would I have gone through the effort?
Then the great Indian jugaad system comes into play. Oh, your parents live in Doon. Just give us his address and his telephone number, we will verify with him that you are his son and send all your bills at his address. So my father signs some forms, gives his passport copy as proof of his residence. I give my passport copy as proof of being his son and I can have my connection. Finally we have new local SIM cards.
Next stop, the bank. I have been a preferred customer (the bank's nomenclature, not mine) of the bank for last 9 years. I now want to shift my account to their branch in Doon. But first I have to convert all my NRI accounts into local accounts. That is a different story but it does happen in about two months. Post that comes the POR challenge.
By this time I have finally managed to buy a house. I have now got a sale deed which has been registered. Armed with a copy of the same I march to the bank. The executive looks at it as if it is a document from Mars and then triumphantly (I swear, I am not exaggerating) asks me if I have a passport, a BSNL land line bill, a electricity bill, a driving license, an Aadhar card or a PAN card with my current address as only those will work as POR. I am puzzled. I have in my hand a court approved document which says that I own a house in Dehradun. It has my photograph, my finger prints, my thumb prints, name of my father, his address....what more POR do I need to give. Sorry, sir I am told we cannot accept this.
By now I am getting apolopetic. Now I know why hair on the head is necessary! So I play my last hand. Fine, I say collecting my papers, I am walking to your competitor down the road. So please give me account closing forms for my bank account, fixed deposits, investments.....you get the drift. The executive immediately springs into action. He meets his boss, who meets his boss, who gets onto the phone....and voila within a few minutes my registered sale deed has become a most valuable document. My address change finally happens.
By now I am becoming wiser. I realise that I either need to have a driving license or an electricity bill or a BSNL telephone connection or an Aadhar card with my new address. Then my POR issue will be sorted.
My driving license is due to expire so I decide to tackle that first. This time I have a bank statement as proof of address, so am feeling a bit better. But RTO is not like my private bank. It is an authoritative monopoly and still behave as the Maharajas of yore. After standing in a queue and buying a form, filling it in duplicate, getting myself medically examined at a government hospital and standing in another queue, I am told that sale deed is not accepted as POR. Which means that this government body does not accept a legal document which has been registered and notarised by another wing of the government!!!! Only the bank statement of a public sector bank (they trust loss making banks more!) is accepted or I need to produce electricity bill, BSNL.....Now much wiser, I throw them my fathers address jugaad. And voila, it works again. So soon I have a driving license but it does not have my true residence address. So it cannot work as my POR.
I now turn my attention towards the electricity bill. I meet the electricity department people who ask me to produce the sale deed (finally one government department which treats its other arm with some respect), plus an affidavit on stamp paper asking for change in the ownership of the meter, plus another affidavit from the last owner saying that he has no objection to the meter being transferred in my name ( don't ask me why should the electricity department think that the ex landlord will want to cling on to the meter ownership after he has sold me his apartment, maybe he wants that to show as his proof of residence!). And of course, I must first wait for the latest bill, pay all dues and then in about 2-3 months the connection will be transferred in my name.
So the bottomline is that I still do not have a "valid, recognised" POR. Oh! I did send an SMS to BSNL saying I wanted a landline and broadband connection. They promptly replied saying someone will call. But I think all their lines are down for the last 5 days!
As a last measure I log on to the UIDAI (Aadhar card site). I realised I could update my address online. So I do the needful and am joyous when I find that the sale deed is accepted as a residence proof. But then I am asked to upload it and read that the size of the attachment could not be more than 5 mb. Looks like no one at Aadhar has seen a sale deed before. Mine has 27 pages. Come on Mr. Nilenkani how could you fail at such a basic thing? Anyway I have uploaded the one page with my residence address and am hoping my application will be accepted. Or I will have to send the same by snail mail to Bangalore or Lucknow and wait for a few months.
Jokes apart, I find this ridiculous. I am a PAN card holder who has filed IT returns without a break, without any delay for the last 15 years or more. I have never cheated on my tax, I have got my voter's card and my Aadhar card with my old address but if I change residence or move to a new city then suddenly I have to prove my residency all over again. And why can't there be consistency on what will be accepted as POR. Why is sale deed which is the most important and only document to prove that a particular house or land belongs to me, cannot be accepted by all as POR?
So, like a typical Indian with infinite patience I wait to get either a new Aadhar card or an electricity bill or a BSNL connection.Till then I will nurture my bank statement and my sale deed. I will cajole, threaten, denounce, plead and hope that these two documents are respected by others. Or maybe I will start a reality show called "The Great Proof of Residence Challenge" Copyright filed for.
My biggest worry was about getting a valid proof of residence. Ask anyone in India who has shifted residence how difficult it is to get one. And specially if you are moving into a new city. School admission, adjusting to new environment and new people....everything pales into comparison with "Proof of Residence" the three dreaded words.
You want a new telephone connection, you need proof of residence; you want to open a new bank account, do you have proof of residence, sir; gas connection not a problem just show us your proof of residence; renew your driving license, the government has made it easy and no need to look for touts just show us the proof of residence. Want to change address for your existing bank account or credit card, of course you need proof of residence.
Those of you who have not undergone this process or my friends who do not live in India, this must be seeming a bit of a joke. It is not my friends. Let me tell you how I twisted myself into knots trying to acquire proof of residence. For the sake of simplicity let me call it POR.
My first few days in Doon were at my parents house, I am lucky that I have their support network here. But with my expat accumulated furniture on its way, I had to soon look for space. So I quickly got myself a rented apartment and got a proper rent agreement drawn up and attested and notarised on stamp paper. Armed with the document I went to get local SIM numbers. My first shock. Besides the rent agreement, I need a no objection affidavit from my landlord that he has no objection to me having a SIM card. And of course he has no objection to my buying potatoes everyday too!!! I mean, what is this for? My landlord lives in Chandigarh. I gotta call him. Ask him to give me a NOC on stamp paper and courier it to me!!! If I was the landlord, would I have gone through the effort?
Then the great Indian jugaad system comes into play. Oh, your parents live in Doon. Just give us his address and his telephone number, we will verify with him that you are his son and send all your bills at his address. So my father signs some forms, gives his passport copy as proof of his residence. I give my passport copy as proof of being his son and I can have my connection. Finally we have new local SIM cards.
Next stop, the bank. I have been a preferred customer (the bank's nomenclature, not mine) of the bank for last 9 years. I now want to shift my account to their branch in Doon. But first I have to convert all my NRI accounts into local accounts. That is a different story but it does happen in about two months. Post that comes the POR challenge.
By this time I have finally managed to buy a house. I have now got a sale deed which has been registered. Armed with a copy of the same I march to the bank. The executive looks at it as if it is a document from Mars and then triumphantly (I swear, I am not exaggerating) asks me if I have a passport, a BSNL land line bill, a electricity bill, a driving license, an Aadhar card or a PAN card with my current address as only those will work as POR. I am puzzled. I have in my hand a court approved document which says that I own a house in Dehradun. It has my photograph, my finger prints, my thumb prints, name of my father, his address....what more POR do I need to give. Sorry, sir I am told we cannot accept this.
By now I am getting apolopetic. Now I know why hair on the head is necessary! So I play my last hand. Fine, I say collecting my papers, I am walking to your competitor down the road. So please give me account closing forms for my bank account, fixed deposits, investments.....you get the drift. The executive immediately springs into action. He meets his boss, who meets his boss, who gets onto the phone....and voila within a few minutes my registered sale deed has become a most valuable document. My address change finally happens.
By now I am becoming wiser. I realise that I either need to have a driving license or an electricity bill or a BSNL telephone connection or an Aadhar card with my new address. Then my POR issue will be sorted.
My driving license is due to expire so I decide to tackle that first. This time I have a bank statement as proof of address, so am feeling a bit better. But RTO is not like my private bank. It is an authoritative monopoly and still behave as the Maharajas of yore. After standing in a queue and buying a form, filling it in duplicate, getting myself medically examined at a government hospital and standing in another queue, I am told that sale deed is not accepted as POR. Which means that this government body does not accept a legal document which has been registered and notarised by another wing of the government!!!! Only the bank statement of a public sector bank (they trust loss making banks more!) is accepted or I need to produce electricity bill, BSNL.....Now much wiser, I throw them my fathers address jugaad. And voila, it works again. So soon I have a driving license but it does not have my true residence address. So it cannot work as my POR.
I now turn my attention towards the electricity bill. I meet the electricity department people who ask me to produce the sale deed (finally one government department which treats its other arm with some respect), plus an affidavit on stamp paper asking for change in the ownership of the meter, plus another affidavit from the last owner saying that he has no objection to the meter being transferred in my name ( don't ask me why should the electricity department think that the ex landlord will want to cling on to the meter ownership after he has sold me his apartment, maybe he wants that to show as his proof of residence!). And of course, I must first wait for the latest bill, pay all dues and then in about 2-3 months the connection will be transferred in my name.
So the bottomline is that I still do not have a "valid, recognised" POR. Oh! I did send an SMS to BSNL saying I wanted a landline and broadband connection. They promptly replied saying someone will call. But I think all their lines are down for the last 5 days!
As a last measure I log on to the UIDAI (Aadhar card site). I realised I could update my address online. So I do the needful and am joyous when I find that the sale deed is accepted as a residence proof. But then I am asked to upload it and read that the size of the attachment could not be more than 5 mb. Looks like no one at Aadhar has seen a sale deed before. Mine has 27 pages. Come on Mr. Nilenkani how could you fail at such a basic thing? Anyway I have uploaded the one page with my residence address and am hoping my application will be accepted. Or I will have to send the same by snail mail to Bangalore or Lucknow and wait for a few months.
Jokes apart, I find this ridiculous. I am a PAN card holder who has filed IT returns without a break, without any delay for the last 15 years or more. I have never cheated on my tax, I have got my voter's card and my Aadhar card with my old address but if I change residence or move to a new city then suddenly I have to prove my residency all over again. And why can't there be consistency on what will be accepted as POR. Why is sale deed which is the most important and only document to prove that a particular house or land belongs to me, cannot be accepted by all as POR?
So, like a typical Indian with infinite patience I wait to get either a new Aadhar card or an electricity bill or a BSNL connection.Till then I will nurture my bank statement and my sale deed. I will cajole, threaten, denounce, plead and hope that these two documents are respected by others. Or maybe I will start a reality show called "The Great Proof of Residence Challenge" Copyright filed for.
