Mr. Ashok Jain went to retrieve his towed car from Chennai’s C1 police station. The police asked him to pay Rs. 800 (Rs. 150 fine + Rs. 650 bribe).

Mr. Jain said he would pay in exchange for a receipt, which the police wouldn’t give. After much talking and pleading, Mr Ashok called his friend Vinod Jain, who came to the station and handed a Zero Rupee Note to the police.

The police saw the note, withdrew their demand for the bribe, accepted the Rs. 150, and gave the receipt without question.

On 22 April 2011, I took an auto to Chennai Domestic Airport to board a flight at 10:40AM. The auto I was traveling on was stopped at the entrance of the Airport and I was asked to walk with my luggage all the way to the domestic airport. It was a long walk from the entrance and as I had my luggage, I asked the policeman the reason for him to stop all the vehicles at the entrance. I got a very “standoffish” reply from him saying that he is not the person to be questioned and he is simply following the instructions given to him by the Airport manager. I got out from the auto and handed over a Zero Rupee Note to him explaining that he can use it when someone asks him for a bribe when he needs to get a electricity or water connection for his residence.

He looked intrigued by the note and I went on to tell him that when he hands this Zero Rupee Note to any authority he would get his services without having to pay the bribe and if there is some resistance or unwarranted delay he can contact the address indicated at the back of the Zero Rupee Note and action would be taken right away. I told him that we have chapters in all the districts of Tamil Nadu and also in major cities in India, and we would inform the vigilance department if we receive complaint from the public and follow up on the action.

The policeman said that the auto can go inside and drop the passenger in the Domestic Airport entrance. This is a victory for the Zero Rupee Note and I feel happy to know that we are able to get our rights without having to indulge in confrontation and by just handing over a Zero Rupee Note and creating awareness that we have an organization to back up against corruption and bribery.

Thanks & Regards,

Vijay Anand

5th Pillar was invited to do a School of Democracy program in Sri Saradha Matric Higher Secondary School.

When the program was over, 5th Pillar learned from the school’s Principal that the school had been trying for the previous year to get the approval to teach higher secondary classes (11th & 12th grade) from the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Matriculation schools (TNDM). When the school met the Director of TNDM, the Director demanded 3 Lakhs bribe and said: “We charge the regular schools Rs.12,00,000, but since you are a non-profit and have a good cause I am charging you this”.

5th Pillar went to meet the Director, but he was out on official duty, so the 5th Pillar team distributed Zero Rupee Notes to the rest of the staff there.

A week later the Principal of Saradha school called to thank the team for helping them get the license.

Just by showing the Zero Rupee Note, the officials gave the school their approval with Zero-bribe.

Sathiq Basha, from Paliambattu village, senji Taluk of vizhupuram district brought his long pending case of Ration card issue to 5th Pillar. He complained that the official demanded a bribe of Rs.1000/-

We drafted an RTI with simple and sharp questions that resulted in not just issue of Ration card to him but to more than 500 families in his Taluk. The one RTI benefited more than 10 villages.

Tea stall owner daughter on Dharmapuri highway attended Freedom from Corruption workshop a year ago and she says proudly, “No policeman bothers asking my Dad for a bribe now!”

Durga Devi, a member of 5th Pillar, purchased a car at a dealership in Velachery recently. The dealer quoted Rs 80,428 as the “Road tax and registration fees” to which she agreed and continued with the purchase. She was asked to come after few days to get the registration and tax documents. When Durga went to collect the bills/reciepts on March 25th, 2015 she found receipts from the RTO Tambaram tallying only up to Rs. 61,796.

The 5th Pillar team accompanied Durga to the Tambaram RTO office and filed a complaint to this effect specifying that the dealership has overcharged quoting bribe payment to Tambaram RTO. The team intends to escalate this as a campaign by approaching the Commissioner of Transport as it is a wide spread problem across the state.

In 10 days, Rs.15,818 out was refunded to through a demand by the Car Dealer This was possible only because she asked the right questions & resorted to complete non-cooperation with both the car dealer and the RTO officials when they tried to convince her to “settle the deal” by making counter offers and forcing her to come to the office somehow to urge her to let go of the issue.