Employees apparently cannot have enough of festivities, poor attendance at government and private offices on Sunday has revealed.
Offices across Bangladesh opened on Sunday after a three-day holiday for the Eid-ul-Azha. But very few turned up for work at the Secretariat, the hub of administration, courts and other important offices.
Those who did virtually spent the day exchanging greetings, embracing each other and recounting their weekend holiday experience.
Weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday fell in this year’s Eid holidays that began on Thursday. Many employees thus went to their village and town homes for celebration taking extended leave.
Officials said they did not expect total attendance in the next few days.
A few employees began trickling in at the Secretariat around 9am, but less than 60 percent attendance was recorded by the end of the day.
The visitors’ lounge, too, was deserted, a departure from the chaos that it normally witnesses on weekdays.
“Many employees are yet to return to Dhaka though the holiday is over. We hope the attendance would be better on Monday,” a senior official of the public administration ministry told bdnews24.com.
The ministry officials hoped the Secretariat would be back to normal next week.
Sunday, however, was work as usual for Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.
Old Dhaka’s court area presented a picture similar to that of the Secretariat.
Many judges, lawyers and appellants were conspicuous by their absence.
Acting judges handled three out of four main Dhaka courts as the judges were on leave.
This saw fewer prison vans carry on-trials from Dhaka’s police stations to the court, said Delwar Hosain of the police’s Crime, Information and Prosecution Division.
Some cases were deferred as witnesses and public prosecutors failed to turn up. They included the one over the murder of legendary writer Prof Humayun Azad.
Many offices in the Parliament building were found to be locked.
An employee said they were asked not to open the offices of the chiefs of parliamentary standing committees.
“Everyone should be back to work by Wednesday,” said Saiful Islam, an officer of the Public Relations Department at the Parliament Secretariat.
While Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is on a tour of the United States and the United Kingdom, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah is in Saudi Arabia for Hajj.
Source: bdnews24