Building Regularization Scheme (BRS) in Kukatpally, A.P. (2000)

The government of A.P. launched a BRS to ratify minor deviations in construction by levying a compounding fee. While many applications have been filed, the municipality officials have been collecting bribes and harassing homeowners by not resolving their cases until money is extorted.

In Kukatpally municipality, the authorities refused to even give information on the number of BRS applications filed and their status. The Kukatpally unit of LOK SATTA mounted a campaign and successfully pressurized them to reveal the information. It turned out that while over 8000 applications were filed, only a mere 1000 were settled so far. The cases settled were taken up on an arbitrary basis. In fact it wasn't on an arbitrary basis - every applicant who relented to the pressure of bribe had the case settled. It also came to light that Rs. 150,000 was collected as bribe from 300 applicants whose cases are yet to be cleared.
LOK SATTA's campaign resulted in all the balance 7000 applications being taken up publicly in a transparent Lok Adalat mode. All the bribes collected were actually refunded! This is a small but significant victory for the local people. Such successes need to be widely publicized, replicated and made sustainable. Many other towns and villages in AP have taken up such anti-corruption drive in respect of a variety of services.