West Bengal draws up strike absentee list

The Mamata Banerjee government is compiling a list of those who were absent on the bandh day. 

Chinmay Chakraborty, joint secretary of the state home (political) department , has written to all department authorities to submit the list of absentees by 5pm on Wednesday. By evening, the list was prepared by each of the departments, and sent to the home (political) department. At Writers’ Buildings, 1,295 employees were absent on Tuesday, which is 16% of the total strength of Writers’ . 

Officials say the state government may not take any“immediate” action like break in service as the CM said two days before the strike. “There would be no immediate action against those who were absent, but the list may be relevant for future use,“ said an official. 

Even though the CM had claimed that 98% of the employees were present at Writers’ on Tuesday, according to the list compiled, 84% of employees had attended work. 

The total number of employees at Writers’ Buildings is 8,031 of which 1,510 are Group A officers. On Tuesday , 1,330 of them had turned up for work, which is 88% of the officer strength. 

Group B and C comprise 5,011 employees of whom 4,141 were present (83%). Of the 1,510 group D employees , 1,265 were there (84%). 

However, it is still not clear what “action” could be taken against the 1,295 employees who did not attend work at Writers’ Buildings on Tuesday . The CM had said that this had not yet been decided. 

Transport minister Madan Mitra had threatened that the state employees who failed to be in their workplaces , would face a break in service that may eventually affect their promotions . Following such “threats” , attendance was unprecedented at Writers’ on Tuesday.