BHAKTAPUR, JANUARY 3
A serpentine queue of service-seekers at Transport Management Office (for driving licence) at Radhe Radhe, Ward No 7 of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality in Bhaktapur is a daily sight.
Service-seekers from 13 districts of Bagmati Province throng the office from 6:00am for new licence, renewal of license, to take trial exam for licence, among others, and wait to avail services from a limited number of employees rendering services from a narrowly spaced office infrastructure.
One of them was Rupa Khadka from Sindhupalchowk who said she had queued up in the office from 6:00am for two consecutive days.
The office issued notice stating 'server down' which led service-seekers like Khadka to resort to agitation.
Service delivery was halted in the office citing technical glitch.
Irate Khadka ranted that she had to stay in a line in four places for a single service and all services could not be availed from a single window. "When does the government provide us easy and convenient services?," she asked.
This frustration has come to the fore in the wake of newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's issuance of a 30-point directive to government ministries and their subordinate bodies on various topics, including making the public services and matters pertaining to public concerns prompt and efficient.
One among the 30-points was immediately prioritising removal of difficulties the general public faced while accessing basic services such as driving licence, passport, health, education ,among other related services.
It may be noted that PM Dahal, in the first meeting of the Council of Ministers, had also decided to make arrangements so that service-seekers may not feel hassled queuing up for services, including passport, driving licence, among others.
The problems in those public offices remain the same despite the head of government's positive intervention in matters of public service delivery after he assumed office.
The Transport Management Office in Bhaktapur has been providing services to around 1,500 services on average on a daily basis, according to Chief of the Office,Shiva Kumar Niraula.
Server down has affected service delivery not only here but in other transport offices such as Sano Bharyang, Sukedhara and Gurjudhara, among others, yesterday and today.
The server that operates in all transport management offices across all seven provinces in the country is under the control of the Department of Transport Management under the federal government.
Service-seekers as well as chiefs of transport management offices in many provinces have been complaining that they have been putting up with complaints from service-seekers frequently due to weakness of the Department of Transport Management.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 4, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
