750 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
183
*** Want of Light in certain North Block Clerks’** Lavatories
629. Sardar Sant Singh : (a) With reference to his answer to starred question No. 432, dated the 30th March, 1943, will the Honourable the Labour Member please state whether he is aware that the clerks’ lavatory adjacent to the officers’ lavatory on the first floor of the North Block facing the north-western court-yard has been without a light for more than a year ?
(b) Is he aware that there is a clerks’ lavatory facing the southwestern inner court-yard of the North Block, the frontage of which is now closed due to formation of some rooms, and there is a narrow dark passage leading to this lavatory, and that this lavatory has hardly ever had a light during the last one year or more ?
(c) If an inspection is made of the other clerks’ lavatories in the North Block, or in other buildings of the Government of India, is the Honourable Member aware that he will find mostly the same unsatisfactory state of affiars, although apparently the C.P.W.D. authorities have informed him that such is not the case ?
(d) Is the Honourable Member prepared to pay surprise visits to some of these lavatories, without informing the C.P.W.D. authorities, say, once in six months or so, in order to judge the veracity of the statements made to him by the C.P.W.D. authorities ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a), (b) and (c). Yes, I am aware of the unsatisfactory state of lighting in some of the clerks’ lavatories in the North Block of the Secretariat buildings. The position is as follows:
Electric bulbs are invariably provided in clerks’ lavatories. Replacements are provided as usual and all possible means are adopted to ensure their safety. Despite the fact that locks are used, the bulbs are very often stolen. The records show that since October last about 48 bulbs with an equal number of bulb locks awere replaced in six clerks labvatories in the North Block, out of which only 2 or 3 bulbs
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. II of 1944, 27th March 1944, p. 1561.