The first full working day at Nabanna, the new state secretariat, began in utter chaos. The employees faced a harrowing time in reaching their respective departments due to shortage of lifts.
The first full working day at Nabanna, the new state secretariat, began in utter chaos. The employees faced a harrowing time in reaching their respective departments due to shortage of lifts. Long queues spilled over the secretariat and many employees could not enter their office even till lunch time. The government employees encountered this predicament because only one lift was operating. There are five lifts in Nabanna — two of them are reserved for VIPs. Of the remaining three, only one was operational. The new secretariat faced yet another adversity. The heavy downpour resulted in the flooding of the spanking new building. Out of the three lifts allotted for employees, two were stalled due to technical glitches. Eleven government departments, including those of the chief minister’s office (CMO), finance, home and information and culture have been shifted from Writers’ Buildings to the HRBC Buildings, rechristened by Mamata Banerjee as Nabanna (new crop). Over 3,500 employees are working in the new secretariat. One lift proved totally inadequate for them particularly in the 14-storied building. Many employees, who came at around 9.30 am in the morning, could reach their offices around noon. Each of these lifts is meant to carry 16 persons. The single elevator which was operational ferried only 10 persons at a time and that also at painfully slow speed. The administration finally had to allow the employees to take one of the VVIP elevators. Significantly, many employees pointed out even three elevators were insufficient to ferry around 3,500 employees to various floors. To cope up with the pressure, the administration has decided to throw open one of the two VIP lifts for the employees 15 minutes after the chief minister reaches and leaves her office. The heavy downpour in the afternoon added to the woes. Serious construction defects of the building became evident when rainwater started flooding the staircases and floors of corridors. Even the floor of chief minister’s office was not spared. The employees of the PWD department were busy in clearing the water which was gushing through the fire exit verandas. Outside Nabanna, there was almost knee deep water. Virtually no work was done in many departments because of these problems. In some departments, the office files have not been in place. “These are teething troubles and hopefully, we will overcome them shortly. Nabanna will start functioning in full steam after it reopens after the Puja holidays,” said a finance department employee.
