But instead of making life easy for the customers, the system has become even more chaotic. Citizens still have to jostle for space to pay their bills, apart from having to undergo an endless wait while in queue. And more often than not, some arrive at the centres only to find out that some of the facilities are not available, as claimed otherwise by the government.

Residents are a displeased lot owing to the long queues found outside these suvidha centres.

“I waited for about an hour, but only two persons from the queue could pay their bills. I could not wait any longer as their systems don’t work properly,” said Chitra Singh, a resident of Gomti Nagar who returned from the Vishwas Khand e-suvidha centre without making her payment.

“I don’t think anything has changed significantly from the earlier system. People go to an e-suvidha centre only to find out that either the facility is not available or some technical problem has been delaying the work,” she added.

Ramesh Kumar, another resident from Gomti Nagar, was lucky, as he managed to pay his electricity bill after waiting for an hour. “I don’t understand how the initiative has been serving its purpose. The queues are still long, and most of the facilities that the centre claims to offer are not available here,” he said. Other residents also complained about the lack of proper services.

At present, the state capital has 31 e-suvidha centres in different localities. Five of these claim to provide railway reservation facility also. However, when it comes to actually booking a ticket here, some technical difficulty or the other always crops up.

The State Coordinator of e-suvidha, Mohan Thakur, on the other hand, denied there being any problem. “All centres are working smoothly and do offer the facilities mentioned,” he said.