GUWAHATI, July 16 - A brief survey of the general public visiting the Assam Secretariat (Janata Bhawan) here for different purposes revealed that people generally lodge their complaints and grievances on numerous issues, especially unemployment and medical matters, with the government.
Except for Tuesdays and Saturdays, Janata Bhawan allows civilians general passes which enable them to highlight their issues directly before the authorities concerned. People from all walks of life and from different parts of Assam visit the Secretariat to make their grievances known to the government.
A man who came to submit an application seeking financial support for a cancer patient said: �...they asked for my bank details and promised to help financially within 40 days�. On being asked if their problems were taken care of, a woman working as a sweeper at the Assam Secretariat replied, �It�s more than a decade now and we are still paid less...I have filed numerous complaints but they (authorities concerned) chose to ignore them.��
A lady who was waiting outside the Secretariat stated that she had come to seek financial assistance for her physically challenged husband as she considers this to be her only ray of hope. Similarly, a girl waiting for her mother outside the Secretariat building said that they had come to ask for financial help from the authorities as her father had just passed away.
Two men came all the way from Hailakandi to highlight the water woes plaguing their place as the authorities back in Hailakandi were not taking the matter seriously. Speaking about the situation in Hailakandi, the two visitors said, �There are too many problems, from water woes to unemployment, which is why, we took this step to visit the Secretariat hoping for some remedy.�
Many young people too visit the Secretariat almost every day seeking employment opportunities in government departments.
According to a person working at the Secretariat, huge numbers of applications and representations highlighting unemployment and seeking medical assistance are submitted almost daily.
He said that while many problems are solved, many are left unattended due to inexplicable reasons.
