Five officials, five thousand ration card records crammed in a 12x12 office
The Mormugao civil supply office is one hell hole. Confinedin a space less than 20 square metres, the office is cramped with people at anygiven time of the day.
For a citizen, visiting the civil supply office in Mormugaois nothing short of punishment. Incidentally, this is the busiest office in therevenue section of the Mamlatdar office, located on the ground floor of anancestral Portugal building, which was popularly known as ‘Kamra deMunicipality’ (municipal building).
The civil supply office is smaller than Mormugaomunicipality’s toilet room area on the second floor. Every day the office ispacked with people, who come for new ration cards, deletion of names,correction of names, inclusion of name, kerosene and gas registration etc.Besides the general public, fair price shop owners and kerosene retailers payvisit to the office to pay challans, submission of receipts and issue ofpermits.
The office is crammed with five small tables, four cupboardsand two racks. Records of 37,800 odd ration card holders of Mormugao, 42 fairprice shop owners and 106 kerosene dealers’ records are stored within this tinyoffice. Not a single day goes by without a verbal duel between staff and peoplevisiting the office for their work.
“One ceiling and one table fan is all that is availableduring the summer which is a challenge for us,” said Civil Supply Inspector,Dattesh Sakhardande. “With the amount of papers stored in the office, even if aspark from a cigarette or a match stick falls on the paper entire record couldturn into ashes within a short span of time,” Sakhardande added.
He disclosed that a proposal has been moved to shift theoffice to the existing Mamlatdar office, which is likely to shift on top floorof the electricity building near Kadamba Bus stand.
