💬 4 hours at the ration card centre in Kukatpally just to add my name back

After I moved back from Riyadh for good, I had to get my name added back on our family ration card. Sounded like a 10 minute job. Went to the centre near Kukatpally at 8 in the morning with my papers. Got home after 12. And I still had to go back 2 days later because I was missing one document. Partly venting here. Partly because I think the fix is really simple and nobody's doing it. Line was already outside the gate when I reached. One queue for every kind of work. New card, correction, address change, someone just checking status, all of them in the same line. Men, women, old people, mothers with small kids on their hip. 2 to 3 hours standing. The old man in front of me was close to 80. He had to sit down on the road twice. At the counter they said I need a copy of the old card and an address proof. Neither was written anywhere outside. Guy behind me said it was his third trip. Each time a different missing document. 3 mornings off work for one correction. He wasn't even angry anymore. Just tired. The 2 men at the counter weren't the problem, they were working nonstop and getting shouted at. What would fix most of it is tokens in time slots. A WhatsApp message, come at 10:30, done. A board outside with what documents you need for each type of work, in Telugu, Urdu and English. And one separate counter for old people, pregnant women and people with small kids. Banks figured this out years ago. How long did you wait at your centre?

4 hours for a 10 minute job is what my uncle also faced at the centre in Malakpet. The extra trip for one missing paper is the real pain. What helped him was asking the officer at the counter for the full list of papers, and photographing it on his phone. Did anyone at the centre tell you everything you needed on day one?

Four hours for one name is about what it took my mother too, at the centre near us last year. She went twice because nobody told her to bring a copy of the old card, same as you. Your idea of a board outside with the documents for each job would have saved her that second trip. The token system makes sense too, but I'd take the board first, it costs almost nothing.