Acting divisional commissioner S. Siddhartha at his maiden janata darbar in Patna on Friday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Secretary to the chief minister, S. Siddhartha, on Friday got a taste of the poor infrastructure at the office of Patna divisional commissioner.

Siddhartha has been given additional charge of the divisional commissioner, as the present commissioner, K.P. Ramaiah, is on leave. At his first janata darbar, Siddhartha, used to the efficient pace of work at the chief minister’s office and home, was in for a shocker.

While dealing with the complaints, Siddhartha tried to call up a number of an administrative official but found, much to his dismay, that the divisional commissioner’s office had only one phone line.

The events unfolded when Siddhartha dialled the intercom number in his office and instructed the employee at the other end to connect him to the Buxar district management.

Within a few minutes, Siddhartha dialled the intercom number again — this time, he wanted to talk to the Patna senior superintendent of police.

While the harried employee at the intercom tried to find the numbers, the stand-in divisional commissioner called the intercom again. He ordered the employee to connect him to the Patna deputy development commissioner.

But when he tried to dial the intercom number the fourth time, Siddhartha found it busy. He waited a couple of minutes with the receiver of the phone stuck between his face and shoulder and the application of a visitor in one hand. When he did not get an answer, he disconnected and dialled the number again and again. The result was the same.

Siddhartha lost patience and told the officials sitting in his office: “What kind of arrangement do you people have here? I cannot make calls. The phone is continuously busy. In the CM’s house, I would have made more than five calls by this time.”

When he tried to make another call, he found the line busy again.

“Why is the phone busy all the time? Don’t you have another phone? Keep at least one phone free for me,” he told the employee at the other end of the intercom. He was informed that the office had only one phone.

A flummoxed Siddhartha later told The Telegraph: “At the CM’s house, I take orders. Here, I have to give orders. The difference in infrastructure is palpable. It’s like working in a regional office.”