Apathy shock

COVER STORY

Apathy shock

Story Dated: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 11:14 hrs IST

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Sharad Mehrotra. Photo by Pawan Kumar

Sharad Mehrotra applied for a commercial power connection when he decided to open a small shop in Indira Nagar, Lucknow. The officials at the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation, however, showed little interest in the application despite his frequent visits to the department. Every time he got the perfunctory reply that the application was being considered. “The delay was frustrating. I was not able to open my shop just because of the delay. I had pumped into the shop whatever money I had, and I was not getting any income out of it,” says Mehrotra.
He got the connection after two months. “But those two months were of acute harassment for me,” he says.
Dr Rakesh Singh, an activist, says such things happen because there is absolutely no awareness about the Right to Services. “When literate people in cities do not have any idea about it, how will villagers know about it? The government made no effort to popularise this act,” he says. BSP state president Ram Aachal Rajbhar, however, attributes it to the government's apathy. “The law is very good when it was implemented by Bhenji,” he says, praising his leader, Mayawati. “When the government changed, it was forgotten.”