Till quite recently, the ordeal of obtaining "no objection certificates" from a good five government departments was but a concept to me, one that was, for all practical purposes, fairly far-removed from my consciousness. But this was only before a young family member working with a theatre group came in personal touch with the process. |
It all begins with one applying for entertainment tax exemption. Don't ask why this exemption is needed "" because rules say that if you are a registered society and if the ticket denominations are not above Rs 500, you don't have to pay tax anyway! You submit copies of all the documents, including tickets, in triplicate, and several reminders later, you go to the entertainment tax office (at ITO in New Delhi) to collect the exemption papers.
After this, you have to lug all your ticket booklets to the assigned police officer who could even summon you to a restaurant at Andheria Mor (!) because you have to get them stamped and signed.
The next big hurdle (and you will soon find out, the greatest of all hurdles you will face) is licensing. Apparently, every performance in the city has to be given a licensing clearance. After you have asked a dozen clueless people what and where on earth is the licensing office, you will somehow stumble to the Defence Colony Police Station "" which also houses the office of the ACP licensing.
You have to submit details of ticketing and a copy of the entertainment tax exemption certificate to this office. What they will forget to tell you the first time you visit them (even if you ask) is that you also need a copy of a no objection certificate (NOC) from the local police.
I guess you can't blame them for holding back something just to keep up conversation the next time you visit them. If you are lucky, after three visits, a few shouting matches and threats, you might get the required clearance from them. And please don't ask them what licencing is and if they have any idea or intention of understanding what it is that you are doing with the play.
Did I say licencing was the biggest hurdle? It must have been because I blocked out the local police from my mind. Once you have the holy document from the entertainment tax office, you have to apply to the local police (of the area where your group is based). They will (after some tears and damsel-in-distress acts "" yes, if you are a man, you can forget getting this done) send your papers to the police station near the auditorium where the performance is to be staged.
Here, a "reader" will send the papers to the SHO who will send it to the DCP or his side-kick "" whoever it is at that moment, who will (after some more tears, the aforementioned D-I-D act and preferably a broken limb) make a report and send it to the ACP, who will then sign his approval and send the papers back to the original local police station where you had applied.
The process takes a week when the going is good and they tell you that they can't give you a clearance more than two days in advance because it depends on the current local situation. Also, recall if you will, licencing won't give you clearance until this lot does. I hereby invite Joseph Heller to rewrite Catch 22.
The seemingly unconnected angle to this is the clearance you need from the traffic police. Despite their embarrassing position right on the BRT chaos corridor, they are the most efficient of the lot. In comparative terms of course.
You deserve a medal if you are still considering a career in the theatre.
