The Heat Ledger at Writers’

Babus at Kolkata’s Writers’ Building went on a wildcat strike inside the imposing building. Their demand: install air conditioners in their office.

Babus at Kolkata’s Writers’ Building, the state secretariat, went on a wildcat strike inside the imposing building on Monday. Their demand: installation of air conditioners in all offices located on the top (third) floor of the British-era structure. Four hundred PWD officers on this floor started agitating soon after reporting for work on Monday. It was so hot that they were soon joined by employees of the pensions, prisons, transport and information & culture departments, whose offices are also on this floor that, naturally, bears the brunt of the scorching summer heat. The agitation reached a feverish pitch after lunchtime, forcing PWD Minister Kshiti Goswami to come out of his air-conditioned chamber. Goswami took a round of the offices on the third floor and agreed with the babus that it was too hot to work. And with the civic polls, which are keeping the Left Front on tenterhooks, just around the corner, Goswami was quick to promise installation of split ACs in all third floor offices soon. Since employees below the rank of deputy secretary aren’t entitled to work in air-conditioned environs, Goswami said he’d request the state cabinet to make a special exemption for lower and mid-level babus.

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Jaideep Mazumdar