Bengal CM on staff attendance check at home dept office

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday morning paid a surprise visit to the office of the home department on the fourth floor of state secretariat 'Nabanna', primarily to check how many officials have reported to work, sources there said.

The CM entered room 403 and 404 around 12.15pm and sought to know how many officials were present there at that hour, they said.

''She talked to the officials there and enquired whether they had attended office on February 10, when a section of employees had called for a strike to press for the demand for a dearness allowance (DA) hike.

''When she enquired why some of the tables were empty, the CM was told that they were sick and have taken leave,'' the official at the department told PTI.

Banerjee also explained to them why she was unable to give them a DA hike.

The CM then proceeded to her office on the 14th floor of the secretariat.

Earlier too, Banerjee, on several occasions, have said that the state does not have enough resources to hike DA of government employees.