Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

Page 74 of 74
Work done
Requisitioning transport
Information
Personally went to every Govt. Deptt. and requisitioned their vehicles. Most were either out
of station or defective & not roadable. Thanks to my driver, Reazul, I got jeeps from people
on our list, e.g. Malda Co-operative Bank, (here I showed great interest in small savings &
the agent Mr.Roy was thrilled, as I learnt from his talk later with T.P.Ghosh), M/S. Chunilal
Shah, Settlement Deptt.
I need DM’s van, car, & one bus at airstrip at 8.15 am to take DM + 27 others [including 17
press people] to the special train. Then at Hchpur I need jeeps [as nothing else will negotiate
the dam-top road] for 50 people, i.e. at least 9 jeeps, besides 4 for the S.P.
I developed quite a headache with all the running about. Only 3 reported by nightfall. I hope
the rest come. SDO, who is OC transport Hchpur, is fuming at lack of vehicles & refuses to
go there without enough vehicles. All private jeeps there have been taken by the Cong®
party. One way out is using is using Unicef jeeps, but DM has rightly prohibited this.
DM asked me to detail all other probationers to accompany CM on 10 th to Hchpur. They must
carry their lunch & not eat with the CM’s party. Pretty anxiety causing situation & no normal
work is done at such VIP visits. What a botheration!
9.4.1972
Work done
VIP visit transport arrangements.
Information
From 8 a.m. till 5.30 p.m. I was constantly at the Nezarat waiting for jeeps to arrive, ringing
up DM to know if any more were coming, sending messengers to bring drivers! DM decided
to use UNICEF jeeps, so I had to get hold of drivers. Most were not found at home. That
raised the question of duplicate keys. After much search Asit Saha was finally found [the
drivers were amazingly obedient & cooperative except Sankar Saha who feigned fever &
would not drive, whereupon I gave his truck to another]. I sent a jeep to bring BDO Gajol’s
jeep as its driver was injured. They returned without it as the garage key could not be found
& BDO was absent. Luckily, in the evening the jeep turned up with another driver! Suddenly
from W.Dinajpur pool one jeep & from Berhampore 2 jeeps reported—all due to DM’s quiet
efforts. DM also wanted 3 trucks for Hchpur & 2 for Malda airstrip. The MVIs said no trucks
would be available on Sunday, so our UNICEF ones were pressed into service by substitute
drivers. Finally, at 5 pm I was really amazed to find ready a convoy of 13 jeeps even after
sending 2 to the police. SDO left with these at last. He had been reluctant to go when DM
told him in the morning. So DM asked me to depute the most responsible probationer. I
unhesitatingly picked S.N.Roy Chowdhury. He was briefed by DM & came ready. By then,
seeing so many jeeps, the SDO was ready to go & left. SNRC was told by DM to stay back to
help me.
Effect of telling SNRC that I had picked him out on DM’s orders has been an interesting
display of interest in the work by him & a dropping of the devil-may-care casual attitude. The
other probationers are sadly lacking in sense of responsibility and duty. Even though DM is
giving over charge on 15 th , two of them [J.N.Banerjee & P.K.Samaddar] are going on leave
on 13 th . SNRC unhesitatingly withdrew his application for leave. All of them have the
attitude “Why should I go to the DM till he calls me? Such a waste of time”!!
After the convoy left, I had 2 jeeps in hand only, plus one old pool jeep. DM added that at
Hchpur there would be 3 station wagons & 2 jeeps more [18 vehicles in all] from Irrigation &
SEB, enough to carry 50 people. For Malda there is 1 luxury bus for the Press, DM’s land
rover & car, and my own 3 jeeps-- more than enough.