eople of Varanasi want Prime Minister Narendra Modi, their parliamentarian from the constituency, to solve their marital disputes, install hand-pumps in their villages, treat diarrhoea and fix faltering electricity supply, among other things. Such complaints are being received by the Prime Minister's parliamentary office in the city almost every day. Plus, the family of the late Bharat Ratna, Ustad Bismillah Khan wants the PM to help find the maestro's missing shehnai.

Modi's Varanasi office, nicknamed the "mini-PMO", has been established as a bridge between the voters of Varanasi and their MP. It is manned by seven people, headed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Shiv Sharan Pathak.

Pathak has to coordinate with Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha for development work in Varanasi. Sinha visits the office four days a week to listen to public grievances.

According to Pathak and his colleagues, people, mostly belonging to the rural areas, are coming up with unusual demands. "A rural couple wants the Prime Minister to intervene to sort out their mutual differences, so that the husband does not insist that his wife wears a veil while meeting outsiders. A man came to complain against the frequent bathing of buffaloes in his neighbouring pond. Villagers from Ram Nagar tehsil want the Prime Minister to check the diarrhoea outbreak in their area. Some want the Prime Minister to fix their faltering electricity supply in their villages. People also want us to sort out property disputes," said a member of Modi's office.

Members of the mini-PMO said that they would look into the complaints of the people and would help them in "solving their problems in whatever possible way".

"But people are even approaching us with family disputes and marital discords. Although we are forwarding their complaints to the PMO in New Delhi, we do not know how to tell the people that they should try to sort out their personal problems themselves," said a member.

He added that the case of Bismillah Khan's missing shehnai too seems a family quarrel over the heritage of the late Ustad. "Nevertheless, we have forwarded to the PMO the complaint made by a family member," he said.

A video-conferencing facility is being installed to connect it to the PMO in New Delhi so that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can interact with the locals directly.