Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

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bed & is recovered. He told me that he would be leaving on 3 rd & that Midha would arrive on
6 th . ADM will leave around first week of Baisakh. He intends to give probationers
independent charge of some depts, so that work goes on despite transfer of NDC & Sr.DC.
[R.Kar will revert to his DPO work]. DM also remarked that no other IAS probationer in
W.B was being trained like me!
At 9.30 pm we found ourselves with a balance of Rs.10,000/- i.e. not above 6 cases per ward.
In a few wards some had not come for the money! Funniest thing is that in the SBI today, a
large number of S.B. Accounts were opened, and sweets disappeared from all shops—all the
result of this loan money. All AROs said that the unprecedented number of petitions stemmed
from the rumour spread by touts that this money would not have to be returned to the Govt.
by loanees. Many AROs have been grossly abused & threatened because of their refusal to
grant loans to ineligible candidates. Actually, all relief ought to be stopped because:-
1. The really needy never get it as touts turn them away;
2. The money has to be written off as irrecoverable loss to Govt.
3. The money is spent not on real assets but consumer goods.
The AROs were requesting some tiffin allowance as they have been working all hours ever
since floods, evacuees, & now this, & always being abused by the public. SDO asked Loans
HC to see if something could be arranged. We were all instructed not to divulge that
Rs.10,000/- balance remained, otherwise public would raise hue and cry.
31.3.1972
Work done
Treasury Inspection by ADM, assisted by O.S., myself, P.Bhattacharjee [Dy.M.],
G.C.Chakravarti, & K.P. Sarkar, T.O., Treasurer.
A boring job in which random checks of actual quantities of stamps was done (11 am-1 pm).
A thorough checking would take 24 hours. What was done was hardly enough to detect any
irregularities, as none of the packets containing round figures were opened & counted. Only
the loose portions were counted.
As usual the T.O. was jabbering away non-stop about how ICS officers would check banking
treasuries. At present in WB there is only one banking treasury, in Murshidabad.
In the evening M.S.Bhattacharya came with 4 relatives who wish to go to Adina & Gaur. I
went with MSB to get a vehicle but the evacuee drivers are striking & would not let me take
it out & they will stop all office vehicles from Monday. I believe a deputation went to the
ADM & behaved most rudely on 29 th night.
Last night Treasury staff worked till 11 pm because teachers came with bills & even the bank
opened at that late hour! Complaint is that bank will get much overtime but our staff get
nothing for their hard work well beyond office hours. From Treasury Contingency something
could have been given as tiffin at least.
I took a look at MSBh’s remarks on C.C.Rs of the Collectorate staff. Minoti Chatterjee &
Sukumar Banerjee have been highly recommended. Of the other ladies, Gita Mukherjee is
useless, & Mrs. Banerjee is so-so. The Election HC, Madhu Das, he has only described as
“reliable”, as he once claimed train fare though he had gone by bus. The rest are average,
except Bimal babu [Judicial Peshkar].
1.4.1972, Saturday
Today till 1 p.m. I was with M.S.Bhattacharya and some relatives of his seeing Gaur and
Pandua. Managed to see the Prophet’s footprint (Qadam Rasul) brought from Mecca 600
years back by Hussain Shah.
DM has, in pursuance of a Govt. radiogram, asked that whatever rice is left should go to
Bangladesh at once. However, problem is that no public trucks are willing. Their drivers
complain that hotels refuse to serve them food on grounds of shortage, & that no help is
forthcoming in case of breakdowns. The last convoy experienced this when one truck got