No office room! Dispur in a fix

Finding work for 13 new parliamentary secretaries

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Sept 23: Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi may have appointed thirteen new parliamentary secretaries to ease the "workload" of various departments and "smoothen government functioning", but it has only added to the woes of the Secretariat Administration department.

The department is uble to provide rooms to the 13 newly appointed parliamentary secretaries. The total number of parliamentary secretaries now stands at 24.

Sources said the secretariat building has no rooms to accommodate the offices of the 13 new parliamentary secretaries. There are indications now that the parliamentary secretaries will be accommodated at the Directorates of their respective departments.

In addition to this 'room crisis', the department is also worried about the shortage of official vehicles to provide to the parliamentary secretaries. A source in the department has informed that they are now planning to hire vehicles.

Given the circumstances, it is anybody's guess as to whether the parliamentary secretaries will be able to discharge their assignments and "help government functioning".

While the existing 11 parliamentary secretaries were already complaining that the ministers of their departments do not give them work, Gogoi allotted the Health and Family Welfare and Animal Husbandry departments to Rumi th and SR Subba respectively. These two departments already have one parliamentary secretary.