Competition in Government Services Indian Style
An office was set up outside Jhansi town in Uttar Pradesh state and 20 people were employed to carry out jobs such as street sweeping.
Officials believe the operation originally started as a scam to collect fees from residents in return for one municipal janitor.
But the leader of the operation, named as Shyam Valmiki, allegedly branched out, opening a functioning office that employed a team of janitors.
"He later seems to have decided to carry on with the office as it did not appear to be a loss-making proposition," an unnamed police officer was quoted by Times of India saying.
More here.
Comments (6)
George Gaskell
Wow. He did everything conventional governments do -- convince people to hand over their money, and provide minimal services in return.
All he needed to do was intrude on other people's lives, murder some innocents and invade a neighbor or two and he would have been a real government.
You know, if he had only kicked some of his booty further up the food chain, the other government would have made him a partner.
Published: December 12, 2007 9:57 PM
Brent
Maybe he can lobby the "big operation" to okay his "smaller operation". It'll be a new layer of government for Indians - just what they needed!
Published: December 12, 2007 11:26 PM
matt
I lived in Uttar Pradesh for the better part of a year, and this story doesn't surprise me in the least.
Based on my experiences there, I suspect that they were caught for being uncharacteristically helpful and prompt.
Published: December 12, 2007 11:41 PM
This is awesome.
Perfect example of the old addage that government hates competition. Of course this fellow provided superior services to other agencies as he did not have an enforcement mechanism (Read militia/Police Force) at his disposal to assist the citizenry in the collection of taxes.
The best part is that his effort was not uncovered by the citizens as they must have been satisfied (It is easy to provide better service than government at the same price) but by employees about to get fired. Why, because government employees own their jobs unlike the rest of us private employees.
Published: December 13, 2007 8:20 AM
happlee
I wish we had a team of Austrian journalists writing this one up for general consumption.
Published: December 13, 2007 11:48 AM
鲜花
thanks
Published: December 14, 2007 3:07 AM