Gloomy corridors, hanging electric wires intertwined with telephone cables, spit-marks all over the place and steel cabinets spread everywhere, the place is not a junkyard as anyone would imagine but Jharkhand’s second secretariat building, Nepal House. Government buildings tell the tale of years of neglect and poor housekeeping.
Nepal House is the best example of discrimination even within the Government corridors explained by the gap in standard of maintenance at two secretariats, one being the Project Building. Notably, the building houses offices of Planning & Development, Industries, Drinking Water & Sanitation Department, Agriculture & Sugarcane Development, Water Resources, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries, JAP-IT, Forest & Environment, Health & Family Welfare where ministers and senior-most officials of these departments call the shots.
The entry to the building draws attention towards a defunct kiosk put up by Tourism department to provide information about tourist spots in Jharkhand however the machine has been languishing at the spot unattended for years. The three floor building contains two lifts but due to poor maintenance employees prefer stairs. “It is better to rely on foot than unpredicted and poorly maintained elevators,” said an employee while hopping stairs.
Dilapidated stairs, broken doors and window panes, walls and corners painted with spits of gutkha and rotting pieces of paper narrates poor maintenance which has been outsourced to a private agency by Building Construction department. Recently a fire had broken out in a corner at Nepal House which was favourite dumping yard for torn pieces of paper. Damp corridors filled with stench of nauseating urinals keep visitors away from water coolers placed next to the restrooms.
If poor housekeeping undermines the seriousness of the place pathetic record keeping is not less disappointing. The narrow corridors of the power centre is made even narrower by steel cabinets of almost all departments with DWSD way ahead others in encroaching the free space that ideally should facilitate easy navigation on a floor.
Other prominent building at Ranchi, Collectorate, is tad better than Nepal House in terms of house keeping. The two wings of Collectorate appear free of wooden and steel junks however non-functional elevators both in A-Block and B-Block of the office are a dent to the image of the building.
The sprawling premises of the Collectorate bear the characteristic of government offices- the unhygienic urinals and stench coming out of restrooms besides water dripping from faucets and spit marks. “lifts work but nobody pays attention when a lift becomes non-functional due to a fault. Otherwise there is no problem in the maintenance of the office,” maintained DPRO Paltu Mahto.