By P Subramanian
Published: 05th January 2015 06:00 AM
I ordered a phone from an online store. The store informed me through email that the consignment would be delivered within 48 hours. They also said that as part of their go-green initiative, they would not be sending the invoice with the consignment. A soft copy of the invoice would be sent by email after delivery of the consignment. The phone in its original factory packing was put in a bubble top wrapper and placed in a cardboard box. The consignment note pasted on the box had my name, address, description of goods, quantity and price of the product. Much paper was used up while claiming to save trees by omitting the invoice alone.
My friend Doss works in an office specialising in garnering taxes. Last year, he proudly announced that his office was fully computerised and the public could access the web portal sitting in their homes/offices and file documents and pay taxes. After a few months, I asked him whether his office became paperless.
He shook his head remorsefully and said the quantum of paper used by his office had increased. I wondered how that was possible. Doss said, “The audit department insists on hard copies of every document filed by customers for auditing.”
The government decided that LPG subsidy would be credited directly to the customers’ bank accounts. The LPG customers were asked to fill up forms and attach copies of Aadhaar with the forms. Photocopying shops near the banks and gas agencies did brisk business, because banks and gas agencies insisted on hard copies of Aadhaar when all that was required was the Aadhaar number alone to synchronise the accounts online.
When I approached a village officer to pay land tax, he advised me to apply for an electronic patta and pay tax online. When I asked him how to go about it, he said I should write an application addressed to the tehsildar, enclosing copies of the title deed, tax receipt, patta and encumbrance certificate. I reckoned I had to make a set of documents running to at least 10 pages of A3 size paper to convert my paper patta into electronic form. Alas, we create paperwork in order to rid an office of paper.
I deposited some money in a post office six years ago to earn monthly income. When I went to the post master for collecting the matured amount, he asked me to produce proof of identity and residence to satisfy KYC norms. I informed him that KYC was complied with at the time of opening the account. But the official was not satisfied with my reply. I had to submit self-attested copies of proof of identity/residence and show the originals to satisfy the official’s exuberance to accumulate paper in his office.
Paperless offices seem to be a far cry, since some jacks-in-office want to retain hard copies of documents seen by them. One can be sure shredders would be in great demand to dispose off redundant stacks of paper gathering dust in e-governed organisations.
