Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

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Harischandrapur, and are to remain there and be gradually thinned as need for manning
check-posts lessens.
Many Kharba camps have been auctioned. Thus one 25 shelter camp was sold for Rs. 875. It
cost Govt. Rs.2.40 per sq.ft. to build each (100 x 14ft.) shelter. GOI had given estimate of
Rs.7 per sq.ft. but here the maximum was Rs.3.10 at the end when bamboos had to be
brought from Bangladesh due to scarcity.
Talking of my training, the DM again told SDO to post probationers in toughest voting spots
and to have us made presiding officers and to do all the preparatory work & go last of all, the
night before, to the booths. The SDO agreed and said this was very necessary otherwise as
DM I would issue all senseless orders to SDO. On my protesting, the DM added that I was an
extremely sincere learner!
The SDO left for office at 7 p.m. again! We three probationers are to help Bhuto Babu and
also with BDO concerned investigate tents & tarpaulins to dispose / retain.
I welcomed this new outdoor work as since the 1 st sitting in the office has been boring, till the
Try.Trng began. But that does not promise much. The DM also played it down as an hour’s
daily work.
Majumdar spoke very highly of former Ast. Mag. Mirdha’s sincere effort to learn & amazing
ability to work in the toughest situations. Majumdar referred to wagons of coal lying
unloaded without any demurrage being charged, while evacuee relief stores were being asked
to be cleared the same day on threat of fine! Obvious link between coal merchants who wish
to create artificial scarcity & the Station Master. Unfortunately the DM has no authority here.
5.2.1972
Work done
Interviewing 55 candidates for recruiting peons, 12 noon–7 p.m.
Information
I told the TO over the phone of my interview work and telephonically told him I was
“present”! Steady night & daylong drizzle has turned Malda’s road into slippery muddy
accident traps for walkers and vehicles. The Old Malda BDO said that Darjeeling Mail &
Kamrup Express, the only two Cal-N.Bengal-Assam trains, were overflowing capacity these
days, & that this was true of most trains as many had been suspended for evacuee movement.
Proceeded to the NDC’s chamber & found it totally unprepared. Told them to get 3 chairs for
us + 1 for candidate & to make room by removing a shelf. On removing it, soot & spiders of
years were revealed and I blew up at this persisting dirt and asked for a duster to clean it up
myself. Required celerity of movement was at once achieved! The NDC on arriving only
mildly reprimanded them & told me that it was impossible to make the sweepers work. So I
told him to shame them into it by starting the dusting oneself. He was not enthusiastic! These
WBCS officers all take for granted that present conditions cannot be changed.
From office library I got WBSR, WBFR, Accounts Code & Treasury Rules.
The age limits for candidates were 18-30, and under-matriculates. 43 came through petitions
& 19 from E.Exchange. Most were between cl. V-VIII, & some 9 & 10, but standard of all
was abysmal in reading 2 lines of English and in handwriting one sentence! Raychoudhury
instead on a little knowledge of English as it would be useful when the peon was to deliver
the files & letters. Out of 62, 55 came and we could pick out some 10 so far as recruitable.
Everyone had genuine sob stories. Some had motor mechanic, fitters training. The answers
one got to queries about who was the P.M of Pakistan were hilarious. One told us that he
often joined procession as the Cong ® candidate Shamsuddin Ahmed paid each Rs.3! Yet this
boy votes for RSP! Tragic case of a boy whose leg was amputated in police firing, son of a
National Award winning Primary School teacher. Govt. has given him Rs. 800 / 900 for an
artificial leg, but how to give him a job? Also Rathin Kar said the boy might be a Naxalite
like the other 2 involved in the incident. What an acute employment problem!