Imphal, November 04: Frequent shifts of the office location of State Leprosy Officer (SLO) on account of flippant policy of the Government has had its direct bearing on its functioning, causing difficulties to both the staff and the leprosy patients.

The office of the SLO is presently operated from a room in the R & D Wing at Lamphel which was formally served as the conference hall of Manipur State AIDS Control Society.

But with leakage on the roof and the plaster of the walls coming out, the staff of the office have been facing lot of inconveniences in carrying out their duties, sources said.

Both the office of the SLO and the District Leprosy Officer (DLO) used to function from the erstwhile Old District Hospital located at BT Road.

But after the Old District Hospital had been dismantled to pave way for construction of temporary market shed, the staff of the two offices have left in the lurch with the furniture and other important materials having displaced.

The two offices were finally shifted to Lei-Ingkhol.

But even before the people could overcome their difficulties in locating the two offices, the Government made the proposal of constructing Capitol Project at Lei-Ingkhol, forcing the office of the SLO to be shifted to the present location at the conference hall of the MACS.

The office of the DLO, however, is still remaining at Lei-Ingkhol.

This seem to not the end of the journey of the SLO office with preparation already being made to shift the office at the building of Citizens� Volunteers� Training Centre at Keirao Wangkhem, the source disclosed.

On the other hand, the condition of the building from where the office of the SLO is being operated is said to be in a deplorable condition.

Although the building is said to have been repaired after a huge amount of fund was released few months backs, the RCC floor has started leaking and the plaster on the walls are peeling off and the electrical fitting had been done not properly.

In this connection, an officer of the Medical Directorate informed that the repairing work was taken up as part of the overall renovation works in the Health Department for which an estimated amount of Rs 1 crore had been sanctioned during 2004-05.Out of the sanctioned amount, a sum of Rs 9 lakhs was released for the purpose of plastering some of the rooms of R and D Wing, white-washing and applying paints and some other quarters, the officer said, adding that Manipur Tribal Development Corporation took up the said task as deposit work.

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