Visitors wait outside the tehsil office in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 24: Visitors to government offices suffer almost everyday because most of these places lack waiting rooms. And if there is one, it’s either too small or shabby.

While the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has a small room that can accommodate around 10 visitors at a time, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and the offices of the sub-registrar and the tehsildar at the Kalpana Square do not have sitting space for the visitors.

Visitors on urgent work have to wait near the parking lot or roam around on the premises of these government institutions as they wait to get their work done. The worst sufferers are the elderly and differently-abled people.

“When we go to the BDA office and the employee concerned is not present, we have no place to wait. There is only one sofa outside the vice-chairman’s office and one or two chairs lying around,” said Bidyadhar Sahu, a man who comes to the BDA regularly for work.

Though people visiting the BMC office are lucky to get a seat in the visitors’ room, on days when grievances are heard it does not have enough space to accommodate the large turnout, they have no option but to stand and wait or just loiter around.

Even the visitors’ room in front of the commissioner’s office fails to accommodate them.

“If we have to go to the tax department or the engineering section of the BMC, we have to wait outside or roam around the premises. These two buildings have no facilities for visitors to wait,” said elderly Binayak Rout, who has visited the office several times.

The sub-registrar and tehsil offices also see a huge public gathering, as people come here daily for land and revenue related matters. Everyday thousands of people come to the tehsil office, which is located in a two- storey building along with the deputy-collector’s office. Though there is a bench near the gate of the building, employees of the two offices invariably occupy them.

Except for the bench, there is not a single place to sit-and-wait at these offies.

The scene is no different at the sub-registrar’s office on the court premises.

However, the officials of these offices argue that arrangements have been made to provide proper facilities ot the visitors.

A senior BDA official said that renovation was on and “a new waiting chamber in front of the vice-chairman’s office will be constructed”.

BMC public relation officer Srimanta Mishra said there was ample arrangement for visitors in the existing BMC office.

“New buildings will come up at Madhusudan Nagar and there will be arrangement to accommodate more people,” he said.

When asked about their plans to provide proper facilities to visitors, officers at the tehsil and sub-registrar offices preferred not to speak.

But an official said on condition of anonymity that lack of space had come in the way of constructing waiting areas for the large number of visitors, who turn up at these offices everyday.

Sources said that after the judicial complex comes up here, there would be dedicated space for the court and public offices along with designated waiting halls for the visitors.