Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Tuesday made it mandatory for its employees to report for duty on
February 28, the day of the countrywide industrial strike,
with no leave to be allowed, while the authorities were asked
to ensure that normal life was not disrupted in any way.
"All state government offices will remain open on
that day and all government employees should report for
duty," Chief Secretary Samar Ghosh said in a circular.
Joint secretary to the state government in another
circular to all departmental secretaries asked them to send to
him details of attendance of employees by 12:30 pm on February
28.
The chief secretary in his circular radiogrammed to
all divisional commissioners, IGPs, IGPs (railway), SPs, SPs
(railway) and district magistrates to take all precautions to
ensure that there was no violation of law and order and that
no untoward incident occurred on the day.
"Attempt at forcible closure of government offices,
shops, markets, educational institutions and industrial
establishments, should be firmly dealt with," the circular
said.
"There should be no stoppage of vehicles and trains
due to squatting or other types of blockade. Such a situation
should not be allowed to develop and prompt advance action
should be taken to effectively deal with them," it said.
The circular called for extensive patrol and adequate
reserve police forces at strategic centres and said "no
government property should be allowed to be destroyed."
Left-backed union, State Coordination Committee and
Nabaparjay, a state government employees` federation opposed
the state government`s directive.
State coordination committee leader Anutosh Sanyal
described the circular as undemocratic and said that its
members would nevertheless join the strike.
PTI
