I think the local registration and yearly renewal should be started and made mandatory in Indian towns, cities. Currently its very difficult to track/confirm proof of residence. I believe this will help in several ways if planned and implemented/enforced well. It may be one difficult/massive project, its beyond my imagination. But I feel strongly believe it will be best complementary project for UID. Both put together will make it.
- It will ensure that local body is aware of ones residential presence. Now, to be specific, only gas agency can authenticate my correct proof of residence. No other agency has legal proof that I reside in specific latest address. Be it income tax dept/electricity dept/ water authority /municipality/government. So rest is for imagination. Gas agency can prove in my case.
- Will help in estimating moving population( like people on rent)
- It will ensure that vehicle density (for parking space consideration) can be estimated properly (when registering vehicle details.
- Lots and lots other indirect benifits to government both local/state/central/election commission/census.
Note: Even vehicle registrations should be made be renewed every year.
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Good idea, might be there and not enforced
This is a good idea and once I check I see some are already in place. We only find ways around it or are too lazy and do not complete out duties as citizens. We cannot expect gov/admin to do everything.
Your residence proof is Elec/Tel/Gas/Water bill and if living on rent the rent agreement which is used to get IT rebate so IT dept knows where you are (there is a trail !). Also you should updated your PAN details if moving/changing cities etc, that it also a law. If you have taken loans the credit agencies have the trails. If you have a mobile connection, they have a trail/proof. BSNL physically checks. That is why its bill is used as address proof. For issue of Passport a cop comes to check and (should) also checks with the owner of the house but we know the story there right ! But still this has to be more polished.
Second, it is unlawful to not do change of address on vehicle/DL etc when moving. I know no one does it but is still unlawful. You have to do it within 30 days as per motor vehicle act else you will miss on a ticket which after 7 days becomes a case and that day will surely come when you are 50 years old and our dreams of automated governance is implemented when some computer programs finds it and matches it to us and sends us a with interest demand note of a high value to send us up ! (this has happened in the US when a 80 year old got a huge tax bill !). So not doing things which are our duties is igniting a very slow time bomb. I like the idea of renewing every year but with the RTO we have it will become a hassle for us. If it was online like in US it is acceptable.
Lastly a suggestion: this I saw at Kansas, US. When I got the DL there, it auto registered me as a voter/jury member of that county. Only after I called them and stated that am not a citizen it removed me from the list. I got jury duty letter once ! When I moved all I did was use my SSN/DL/Car details, logged onto their site and updated my car and DL address. They also will not give u the DL, its always sent via USPS snail mail as that also verifies the address since a signature is needed (like our passport). Also for DL we need to provide 2 types of ID proofs, SSN and rent agreement as proofs. The process hardly takes more than 10 days if you pass the written and driving test. Once you have DL the renewal hardly takes a day since they already have all the details. Since everything is tracked using SSN it becomes easy. Maybe thats why India has started UID. Hope for the best that it will do its purpose. Rome wasn't built in a day. India is like 100 Romes, with each Rome different !
In India I guess the biggest opponent of rent address registration are the landlords as the rent they receive is black money, they never declare it as income. That has to be somehow curbed as thats lost revenue for Goverment.
-Falcon of India
Many things agreeable
Hi Falcon,
I thank you profoundly and understand how much you have taken pain to analyze and point out regarding lacking of delivery of responsibility from a citizen's perspective. What nice thoughts , they are beyond rental registration !
I am taking specific references to comments below:
1. We only find ways around it or are too lazy and do not complete out duties as citizens. We cannot expect gov/admin to do everything...
2. It is unlawful to not do change of address...
3. They have a trail/proof. BSNL physically checks. That is why its bill is used as address proof. For issue of Passport a cop comes to check and (should) also checks with the owner of the house but we know the story there right !...
4. USPS snail mail as that also verifies the address since a signature is needed...
5. Since everything is tracked using SSN it becomes easy...
Analysis
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To me, you made several nice and valid points and gave clues towards solution.
The above points clearly indicate wastage of several government resources just to confirm the residential address. Isn't it? You said rightly how much pains BSNL/Passport and other depts take to validate. Everybody has seen it(Ref . 3)
And answer lies in your comment 1 & 2. People(include me) are lazy and due to which we do many times unlawful things. But to me , laziness just one factor, many others too exist. But you are still right, government can not do anything.
Approach
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Approach toward lies in your 4th and 5th points. There should be a framework where both national and local elements to have proof ID and address. While SSN ensured your national ID element and USPS took care to confirm your address proof. In India also former being implemented via UID, the second is still not organized well. I join you in wishing all the best for UID.
What about second part? I am thinking of a framework somewhat similar to NREGA (Udyog Khatri). Its really massive, but achieved well. Though We cannot expect gov/admin to do everything , we can expect the least framework.
As We only find ways around it or are too lazy and do not complete out duties as citizens, government should approach in indirect way to enforce law using our own tax money.
Here it goes. Once a year local body should mandatorily initiate/complete local registration process. Not citizen to do it, other way, local officer will come and register and send you a certificate. But optionally citizen should be able initiate. He should use all possible ways to confirm your residence like neighbour's witness, introduction(like banks) etc. Local body also should collect old track records, like last address certificate etc. Rental agreement document should be just a part of it. NID (when implemented) should be verified before issuing residence certificate.
I am sure impact will be huge. All other authorities/agencies get solution at one stop, local body. Go local !
Many friends say, their name
Many friends say, their name does not appear in voters list. Had this suggestion implemented and connected to Election Commisions office (techincally via webservice or a municiple feed system) no such issues have come in last moments of elections. Sad to see current situation of island mode of working in the era of computer networking. People are able to connect 30000km satellites, but unable to "connect" locally :(