Private convenience

The Planning Commission’s swanky new toilet complex, renovated at an estimated Rs 35 lakh, may have grabbed the headlines as much for the cost as the fact that it restricted access to the facilities via smart cards issued to 60 people. But it turns outs that a finance ministry department has left the Plan panel far behind in the use of technology to restrict the use of the officers’ toilets. One of its offices in central Delhi requires biometric identification to gain entry to the toilet. Or so a visiting officer from another building discovered when he tried to use the facility and was denied access. Finally, he had to call an officer from the department to swipe him in.