HERITAGE BUILDING

Dilapidated condition of district information office

 

COOCH BEHAR, June 16: The age-old building that housed the office of the district information and cultural affairs department at Sunity Road in Cooch Behar is lying in a dilapidated condition for a long. The employees have to work here with anxiety. The plasters of the roof dropped off several times but the workers are lucky enough that no one had to suffer from injury by those flying chunks.

 

The office of the district information and cultural affairs department is situated in a very old building. Marks of decay are there everywhere. Electrical wires and switchboards are hanging from its colourless rough walls. Flourishing parasitic plants made the roofs and outer corners of the building green. Visitors feel panicky in using the shaky narrow wooden staircase to go to the first floor. There is no difference of the situation with a haunted house.

 

The office room of the district information and cultural officer is on the first floor. It is also a pale one. The plasters of the roof above the table of the officer dropped off at many places and the iron rods came out to greet the visitors with ugly smile.

 

The information and cultural affairs department is under the portfolio of chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattarjee but his office in Cooch Behar reflects nothing like his clean attire. The workers are also aggrieved.

 

The office needs at least eight rooms for sections like audio-visual unit, technical section, reading room and establishment section including a room for the officer. The office needs a garage too.

 

When asked, Mr Dipen Bhattacharjee, an operator of the audio-visual unit, said, they always have to work with fear of dropping of roof chunks on their heads. In the event of earthquake or heavy downpour the building may cause havoc to all the employees engaged in this office, he opined.

 

Another staff said the office was shifted to this building in 1980 or earlier. Proposals were placed with higher authorities several times to change the office in a specious building leaving this dilapidated rented one but all those gone to deaf ears. There is no healthy atmosphere in the existing office, he complained.

 

The district information and cultural officer, Mr Tapan Kumar Sarkar said he already discussed the condition of the office building with the district magistrate Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha. He hoped that very soon they might get accommodation inside the old collectorate building on the west bank of Sagardighi. []

 

PHOTO : The office of the district information office in Cooch Behar on Monday. – DEBASHIS BHAUMIK.