APATHY

Trying to take advantage of the Voter Registration exercise undertaken by the Election Commissioner's Office we were scheduled to obtain our mandatory Photo ID cards based on the appointment granted on submission of the Registration application in the prescribed form on 24/02/09.
Reached the relevant office around 08 hours (incidentally the offices operate from 08 to 12 then 16 to 20 hours - Monday Holidays - probably in an attempt to portray itself as public friendly??).
The black gates at the shabby office located in a fairly obscure location were securely locked with a strong Godrej Navtal padlock!!
Waited hope fully along with some more early birds searching the horizon for the man with the key to our Indian voter identity. Time ticked by as some more vote aspiring citizens piled up.
Around 09 hours we realized that the there was some thing amiss. Even by government standards the opening of the office could not be late by nearly an hour irrespective of proverbial late coming excuses that abound in this sector.
We observed some youngsters enjoying the festival of colours when it dawned that probably the office is closed for HOLI & ID festivities, though it was evident that most of the people who were waiting had planned the early stop over on way to their respective work places as it is not a public holiday in Karnataka!!
At the least, the relevant government offices and their bureaucrats (sucking tax payer funds) can become a little more sensitive to the general public by tracking their Holidays ( which are declared in advance) and not schedule activities on such days to avoid harassment. If that is too much to expect they can extend the common courtesy of putting up a notice at the gate(s) to announce the closure due to Holidays so that the citizen can curse his luck without wasting precious time for being given an appointment on a holiday!!
Such apathy to the public should not be tolerated and must become one of the issues required to be changed through the power of our votes.
Make sure you cast that vote during the forthcoming elections.