CM pays surprise visit to Home & Hill Affairs department, expresses displeasure over low attendance

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday paid a surprise visit to the office of the Home and Hill Affairs department at Nabanna and was dissatisfied with low attendance in the department.

According to sources in Nabanna, only 25 per cent of the total strength was present at the time of Banerjee’s visit.

Banerjee reached Nabanna at 12.10 pm and instead of directly going to her chamber on the 14th floor, she went to the 4th floor.

The Chief Minister asked why so many chairs were empty today (Wednesday) being a full-fledged working day. She also spoke with some of the employees regarding their nature of work.

Finding heaps of files lying on the tables of some of the employees, she enquired whether these files were being kept pending. Banerjee also asked some employees whether attendance was good on March 10, when some organisations had given a strike call, and the state government had made attendance mandatory. She spent some ten-odd minutes and then went to her own office on the 14th floor.

According to Nabanna sources, Banerjee has learnt that attendance was feeble in the Home and Hill Affairs department on March 10. A good number of employees in the department are affiliated with the Left Front-backed organisation that had given the strike call.

“Various department heads have already started issuing letters asking the employees to show reasons why they did not report for duty on Friday (March 10).

The letters also mentioned that if the employees couldn’t justify their absence, stern measures would be initiated against them,” said a senior government official.

The state government had cancelled all kinds of leaves on the strike day by issuing a notification except in some special cases like a bereavement in the family or hospitalisation etc.