The district administration offices located in the Narmada Bhavan premises include the revenue department and Jan Seva Kendra. (Representational)
The prant officer of Vadodara has requested for police deployment at various offices of the district administration to prevent crowding at these offices amid the Covid-19 pandemic and to drive away people posing as “agents” to dupe people.
Prant Officer Vijay Patni conducted a surprise inspection on Saturday at the government offices in the Narmada Bhavan premises and handed over a list of eight persons to the Raopura police, seeking action against them for wandering these offices posing as “agents”. Patni said that only those who want to submit applications will be allowed to enter the office premises.
The district administration offices located in the Narmada Bhavan premises include the revenue department and Jan Seva Kendra. The administration has already issued prohibitory orders against people posing as “agents” to help people process their work at various administration departments.
“There are people who keep visiting the offices on the pretext of submitting applications. Once inside the offices, they pose as agents and cheat gullible people who are wary of going through the process of filing applications themselves. Many people have complained about being fleeced by these so called agents who also demand fees for doing what the government offices would process for free for individuals. So, in order to minimise the entry of such persons and also avoid crowding in various offices, we have restricted entry only to the actual applicants,” Patni said.
On Saturday, in a surprise check inside the C block campus of the premises, Patni and his team cornered eight “agents” and handed over the names to Raopura police station —Aabida Abdul, Prakash Chauhan, Firoz Patel, Zubeida Patel, Siraj Ghanchi, Harish Chauhan, Himakshi Chauhan and Mahesh Patel.
“We have requested the special branch of the police department to provide police bandobast during office hours inside the Narmada Bhavan compound so that such illegal agents can be kept at bay,” Patni said.