Work culture and attendance in Bishalgarh SDM office remain lackadaisical amidst ‘Dalal Raj’

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, June 3, 2026

The government of Tripura, like other BJP-led state government, has introduced a new weekly work schedule for employees and officers in government offices across the state, as part of which the official working hour is to begin at 9-00 in the morning and end at 6-00 in the evening on all five working days from Monday to Friday. This decision was taken and implemented by the government to enforce an austerity drive to save fuel cost in view of supply constraints spawned by the war in Middle East.

But contrary to the government’s expectations the change in the weekly work schedule has not had so far any positive effect on the work culture in government offices where things go as they were earlier before the notified change. This is evident from the pathetic state of affairs in the Bishalgarh SDM office , located in a small corner of the so-called mini subdivision amidst a vast and backward rural hinterland. There has been no change even in the attendance in office of the SDM Binki Saha who is otherwise efficient and active but in the matter of attendance she also comes to office much later than the scheduled attendance time of 9-00 AM.

In the case of lower grade employees including DCMs the situation is what it was earlier and they come to office in a languid manner between 10-00 and 11-00 AM and then take a long time to settled down on chair after drinking water and combing hair or having a cup of tea. Sources from Bishalgarh said that hundreds of people , mostly from rural areas, queue up in front of the office to have their multiple official jobs done but they are subjected to inordinate delays because of the whims and caprices of the ‘Babudom’ who take their own sweet time before attending to assigned business. What worsens the problem is the army of touts and agents who roam within the office premises to earn slush money by getting the works of the people done by employees and officers. “These touts and agents have an unholy nexus with the employees and , as a result, they can get things done within a very shot time in lieu of cut-money which is shared with the ‘Babus’; the helpless people have no other alternative but to pay their way through the touts and agents , often euphemistically called helpers; there is no body to enforce a decent work culture and things go on as they did earlier” said sources from Bishalgarh. The SDM Binki Saha is stated to have totally failed to improve the work culture in her office and the people demand intervention from higher level.

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