CHENNAI: Bangalore-based Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy has launched the website www.ipaidabribe.com, wherein those who paid bribes to government officials can file a report on their ‘experience’.While close to 14,000 reports have been filed from the time the website has gone live, people in Tamil Nadu can take heart from the fact that the bribe sums reported in the State amount to Rs 2 crore from 1,000 respondents. Compared to Maharashtra (Rs 6 crore from as many people) and Karnataka (Rs 11 crore from 4,000 people), this is one list in which Chennaiites wouldn’t mind the lower rank. Understandably, 839 complainants hail from Chennai, with Madurai and Coimbatore in tow. Sample a complaint: A man from Alwarpet has posted that he has been paying `20 every time his gas cylinder is delivered lest they give him a half-filled cylinder. ‘Please Help,’ he says at the end. The upper limit stretches into lakhs, allegedly paid to the central excise department for ‘import duty’.In Chennai, the police are toppers with 350 of the bribe reports naming their department, while the department of motor vehicles finishes a close second. However, though the number of bribes reported are high, Chennai does not feature in the top five cities in terms of bribe amount received, losing out to other metros.
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