City’s vital admin office in a shambles

Gurugram For a 75-year-old resident, a former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of the Bihar cadre, getting a new voter ID card from the Mini Secretariat at Rajiv Chowk proved a hard task.

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The resident, who preferred anonymity, said he and his wife had to get voter IDs in October 2019, in the run-up to the state assembly polls.

“First, it was hard to find the Election Commission’s (EC) office within the complex. But the most challenging part was to climb five floors of stairs, where the EC office is located. Lifts were not functional so, we had to climb the stairs. Then, we had to pass by the stinking washroom. On reaching the EC office, we were asked to climb five floors down to submit the documents,” he said, recalling the inconveniencing experience, following which he wrote letters to senior officials in the state government and the Election Commission.

The retired IAS official is among the thousands of people visiting the Mini Secretariat every day, to avail of services as well as get other legal procedures done.

Constructed in 2004 by the Haryana Shahri Vikas Pradhikaran, then Haryana Urban Development Authority, the six-storey building houses offices of important officials and departments — deputy commissioner, subdivisional magistrate, chief city magistrate, revenue department, regional transport authority (RTA), labour department, Election Commission office and Antyodya Saral.

Amit Khatri, the deputy commissioner, said that the administration is trying to improve its services. “To reduce visitors’ load at Saral centre, we have opened a new centre in Palam Vihar. Soon, a few more will be set up. We are also digitizing our revenue records to reduce paperwork. We are working on maintaining cleanliness and improving basic facilities.”

According to him, there is a proposal to build a new administrative building near the secretariat. Notably, the proposal was floated in 2010, when senior officials started looking for alternative sites to shift some of the departments. “Offices in the secretariat are crammed. The proposal is to build a new administrative tower. The project is still awaiting final confirmation,” said Khatri.

Lack of seating facility

Having an average footfall of 3,000 people per day, most important offices in the complex lack proper seating facilities for its visitors. In November 2018, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, after inspecting the Antyodya Saral Kendra — that provides more than 400 services to citizens — and witnessing the heavy footfall of residents coming to get birth/death certificates, renewing licences, etc, had instructed the deputy commissioner to expand these centres or create separate ones for the older and newer parts of the city. The directions were issued after Khattar noticed that the centre lacked sufficient seating facilities.

A similar situation can be witnessed outside other offices that receive heavy footfall, including the CM’s Window, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and labour department, where, in the absence of seating facilities, visitors can be seen sitting on the staircase or on the floor.

At the RTA office, located on the third floor, mounds of files cover half of the area, stretching almost up to the ceiling. These files, mostly registration certificate files of the last three years, is the striking feature of the RTA office, say visitors.

Harinder Singh, inspector, RTA, said, “There is no space to accommodate these files. Therefore, they have to be stacked in the available area. These files are weeded out every three years. An agency appointed by the state government collects these files from all districts and discards them.” He said that there will be sufficient seating space once these files are removed.

Poor infrastructure

In terms of amenities, the building lacks facilities as basic as proper washrooms for women and drinking water facility on each floor. Lifts are mostly non-functional, as of the six lifts, only a maximum of two can be seen functioning at a given time. At times, none of the lifts is functional. Also, several cases have been reported in the past where visitors have been stuck for more than 20 minutes in the lifts.

“If the lift is non-functional, we approach the private agency dealing in lift repair and maintenance,” said Lalit Jindal, executive engineer, electricity, PWD, refusing to speak about the budget allocated for the task and the delay in addressing problems on time.

More importantly, the building is ill-equipped to handle an emergency, such as a fire, as it even lacks the requisite no-objection certificate (NOC) from the fire department. Under the Haryana Fire Service Act, 2009, before constructing any residential or commercial building taller than 15 metres, it is mandatory to obtain a fire NOC conforming to the National Building Code of India, the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the Factories Act, 1948 and the Punjab Factory Rules, 1952.

According to a senior official, the NOC has been pending since the building was constructed. In 2017, a fire audit report of the building was prepared, but no follow-up action has been taken to expedite the process of getting the NOC.

Repair and Maintenance

When asked about the poor state of affairs at the secretariat, officials of all departments pointed the finger at the Public Works Department (PWD), the appointed agency for the maintenance of the Mini Secretariat building along with the Vikas Sadan, which houses the offices of the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), women and child development, social justice and consumer court, among others.

Rajesh Gupta, the official concerned with the maintenance of secretariat and Vikas Sadan, said, “Maintenance falls under the jurisdiction of the PWD. We send our requirements and estimates, based on which they take a call on maintenance.”

For the renovation or repair work, an estimate report signed by the deputy commissioner is sent to the PWD for budgetary allocation. “From PWD, the report is further passed on for final approval to the Revenue and Disaster Management Department. Once the final confirmation is given by the department, funds are transferred accordingly, as per the estimate,” said Sandeep Singh, senior engineer, PWD.

Interestingly, as per the documents accessed, the annual maintenance estimate includes whitewashing, distempering, cement plaster, oil bound distemper, sandpapering, fixing tiles and tile terracing. “The expenditure on each of these items is calculated based on the area-wise requirement. It is based on the Haryana PWD schedule of rates,” said Singh.

Until November 2019, the PWD had spent only ₹5.61 lakh on repair and maintenance work. In 2018-19, it spent ₹15.83 lakh while it was ₹13.61 lakh in 2017-18 and ₹17.82 lakh in 2016-17.

According to the officials, for any other task that requires improving basic services, the district administration has to utilise its fund.