When it rains, under unfurled umbrella sits computers in this office and water trickles down the ceiling and walls where plasters have peeled off. Welcome to the City Rationing Office.
The office is on the second floor of corporation-owned building on the North Railway Station Road.
For the last 10 years the staff in the office has been complaining to the higher-ups for repair works. When no repairs happened, the requests were made to shift the office to a better place.
The plaster of the ceiling peels off often, baring the iron rods. Roots of a tree have grown into the toilet and the door cannot be shut properly for fear of getting jammed.
“There is no water connection in the office,” said one of the eight women in the office. A hotel functioning on the ground floor pumps water from their bore well into their overhead tank. The office staffers pay the hotelier for the electricity charge he rings up to operate the pump. “When there is no water, the women in the office are forced to go to the comfort station at the North Railway Station,” she said.
The rationing office was shifted to the old corporation building in 1991 and the building itself is nearly 40 years old.
With no maintenance, the jammed iron windows refuse to close, letting in rain and wind, making it difficult for the 14 employees in the 800 sq. feet office room. The office pays a rent of Rs. 2,500 to the corporation and that is the higher limit of the rent the government can pay, said an employee, adding that it is difficult to find another office space for that amount.
