'Hold meetings in govt-owned auditoriums, not pvt halls/hotels'

Kolkata: The state government wants to make it mandatory for various departments to hold their meetings in the government-owned auditoriums instead of private ones. From now on, if a department decides to hold a programme in any private hall or hotel, it will have to seek prior permission from state Chief Secretary Malay De.

A notification in this regard has been issued by the state Finance department on June 4. "Departments are required to hold various meetings for different official purposes and there are occasions when these meetings are required to be held in private hotels, convention centres and such other private establishments. The state government in the last three to five years has created new infrastructure in the form of meeting rooms, convention halls, convention centres. Therefore, it has been decided that henceforth administrative departments shall have to obtain prior permission of the Chief Secretary for holding such meetings in private hotels or establishments," read the notification.

"The decision will help in putting a check on wasteful expenditure as well as ensure proper maintenance of the government-owned auditoriums," a senior official of the Finance department said.

It may be mentioned that the state government has come up with a host of such convention centres of which the largest is the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in New Town with a 3,200 seater auditorium.