Hyderabad: Internet services at the Telangana Secretariat have remained down for five consecutive days, throwing key administrative operations into disarray and drawing sharp criticism from both staff and visitors.
Departments including Information & Public Relations (I&PR), Entry Pass Issuance, and Foreign Travel Verification have been particularly hard hit. With digital systems rendered useless, officials have been forced to issue entry passes manually, causing delays and confusion.
According to employees at the Secretariat, the disruption stems from damaged cable lines. Despite multiple complaints from various departments, no one from the IT or General Administration wings has stepped in to fix the problem. “We’ve been following up since day one, but there’s no response. No one has even come for inspection,” said a junior official in frustration.
The longer the blackout continues, the worse the impact. Officials say file clearances are delayed, day-to-day entries are stuck, and people are being turned away. “Some visitors showed up three times just to get one document cleared,” said a security staffer, shaking his head.
For a building that’s supposed to be the heart of the state’s governance, the lack of a basic internet backup has come as a shock. Many inside the Secretariat are now questioning whether there’s any seriousness at all in how tech issues are being handled.
Public anger is rising too. Several citizens complained that they were made to wait for hours, only to be told to return another day.
With criticism mounting from all quarters, officials are under growing pressure to not just restore connectivity, but also put in place a plan to ensure that such outages don’t paralyse the Secretariat again.