People who come to the sub-registry office located in Bagatipara, Natore, are facing extreme hardship. Although the office is open two days a week, there are no minimum civic amenities for the service recipients. Children, the elderly, and the sick have to wait for long periods under the open sky. The waiting room built for sitting is locked and unusable.
The service recipients complain that since there are no toilets, the situation for women is extremely miserable even though men can relieve themselves wherever they need to. There is no provision of clean drinking water. Some are even spending time sitting in their vehicles or on the ground as there is no suitable place to sit.
A sick woman in her 60s said, “I have been sitting on the van from morning to afternoon. There is no toilet facility, women like us are suffering a lot.”
Attab Hossain, a service recipient, expressed his anger and said, “We pay a lot of revenue to the government. But there is no service for us. They have built a sitting room called ‘Shayamal Chhaya’, but that too is locked. Not even a tube well has been arranged for water.”
Former mayor of Bagatipara Municipality AKM Shariful Islam Lelin said, “Despite the government collecting a lot of revenue, basic facilities have not been ensured for the people. This is the negligence of the concerned department. Citizen facilities must be ensured quickly.”
It remains to be seen how effective the local administration’s initiative will be in the face of the demands of the service recipients. Until then, the suffering of people coming to the Bagatipara sub-registry office for services may continue