TURA, May 24: Pictures and videos of the Fishery Office at the village of Dadenggre have been doing rounds on social media after local MLA from TMC Rupa Marak paid a visit to the spot about a week ago over employees not attending the office.
His visit ensured that government offices in the constituency start taking their jobs seriously with regular attendance.
What it also did was highlight the abject working conditions of the employees of the Fishery department that are posted in the area.
Photos and videos of the office showed the abysmal state of affairs with the false ceiling collapsing on itself, and the doors and windows missing. There was one room that could be used by the people.
“How can anyone work in such abject conditions? The office itself looks like a joke. Even animals will refrain from going there due to the condition that the rooms are in. Someone should inform the government that there is a Fishery department in Dadenggre which needs a major overhaul,” felt Tura resident AM Marak after noticing the pictures online.
During his recent visit, the MLA said there was nothing at the office.
The situation was such that after the MLA reached the office, the chowkidar had to arrange chairs from someone nearby.
For Rupa, the fact that officers were now making it to the offices on time in itself is a big achievement.
He now feels that the abject conditions will be worked upon as both officers and employees, as well as the beneficiaries from the area, start coming to the office.
“This has been a long-pending demand of the people of Dadenggre. Most officers who worked in Dadenggre were attending office from Tura, depriving a lot of the local folk who had to travel to Tura to get work done. In fact one of the employees of the Fishery department is from Dadenggre and needed to go to Tura every day to work despite his office being in the area. The situation has to change or local development will just be a pipe dream,” he felt.
He added that the situation of officers working from Tura had not changed despite him trying to do so since his days as a civil society leader, way back in 2006.
“Our pleas to ensure attendance always fell on deaf ears. Those in the administration and the political diaspora should have ensured such a thing happened but chose not to for reasons known only to them. All we want is that the people, for whom the government is supposed to be working for, actually are there on the ground,” the MLA said.
Blaming the officers for the mess at the office, Rupa asserted that had the officers been there on the ground, the office would not have been left in such a dilapidated condition.
“Now that they are coming, I am sure they will have to look at ways to better the condition of the offices going forward. They are the ones responsible as they have never been here to work,” said Rupa.
Meanwhile, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Jagdish Chelani explained the situation and said, “There is only one officer for both Tura and Dadenggre due to which work was being done from Tura. I was only informed of the situation by the MLA after which I asked the department to ensure an officer goes there at least 2-3 days in a week to address issues of the people there. The office was not in active use for many years which explains the decadence.”
