Citizens take pride in their nationals IDs. But when the place that processes their IDs turns into a ghetto, the pride becomes associated with a nightmare. The daily hassle citizens face inside the overcrowded, small, and dilapidated building of the Jeddah Civil Status Department continues. Although the new building of the department was completed long time ago, there is no sign of close move out of this old building into the new one. Reports said furniture remains a problem as the new building has not been furnished to allow the department to move in. The current building a pity to look at, let alone to go inside and process paperwork, a citizen said.“It is too small to accommodate the huge number of the service seekers,” he added. “It is understaffed and it could take forever to process one simple transaction,” he said. Saeed Al-Shahrani, a service seeker at the department, said he had been frequenting the department for more than three days just to get the new ID, without which he would not be employed as a security guard. Abdul Hadi Al-Sayed, another service seeker, called upon the officials concerned to expedite the move to the new building to alleviate the daily hassle of the service seekers. A simple look at the marvelous government buildings in Dubai, for example, would make us look lagging behind in construction of government offices, another citizen said, lamenting the deplorable conditions of the Civil Status building in Jeddah. – Okaz __
