On Thursday, he stepped out dressed in a lungi-kurta, wool cap, and a muffler. He reached the Mamlatdar office in Godhra at 11 am, accompanied by a few citizens, to ascertain the “difficulties” and the “truth” about complaints received from citizens regarding the ration card department.

“The officers and other licensed agents did not realise that I was on an undercover operation until about 3 pm, but by then, I had already left, and by 4 pm, I had completed my report. I found that several resolutions of the government were being violated and citizens were being overcharged for ration card services,” Makwana said.

He said that while the licensed stamp vendors were “found” to be selling stamp paper of Rs 100 for Rs 120 and the paper of Rs 50 for Rs 60, the officers were also allegedly insisting that citizens make affidavits for submission from lawyers at the premises, even though “the General Administration Department (GAD) resolution of 2021 did away with the need for affidavits”.

“Similarly, citizens only have to pay Rs 23 for applications and other costs, as (a previous additional) fee was done away with for renewals of two categories. But the officers are continuing to make citizens pay Rs 20 and Rs 40 as per the old fee structure and depositing this fee through challans in the banks — an unnecessary harassment of citizens,” Makwana alleged.

He added that the photocopy shop was allegedly found to be charging Rs 5 for a single page of photocopy as against the market rate of Re 1.

Along with the stamp vendors, the owner of the photocopy shop and petition writers, notices have been served to Tehsildar (Rural) Nilesh Patel, Deputy Tehsildar (Supply, Rural) Chirag Rathod, Tehsildar (City) J L Kharadi, and Deputy Tehsildar (Supply, City) H V Bhoi.