The usual scenario of the secretariat has changed. Offices used to start at 9.00am in the morning up until now. However, under the new rule, offices started at 8.00am on Wednesday. The officials and employees started coming to the secretariat from before 8.00 in the morning.
Offices of all the government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations in the country will operate from 8.00am to 3.00pm every day from now on to save energy and electricity.
The weekly holidays will be Friday and Saturday like before. Offices will operate under this new schedule until the next order is issued. These decisions were taken during the regular cabinet meeting on Monday.
At the same time, the weekly holiday in educational institutions has been extended to two days. Educational institutions under the Directorate of Secondary & Higher Education will remain closed on Fridays and Saturdays.
In addition to that, changes have been made in the banking schedule as well. As per the new schedule, banks will operate from 9.00am to 3.00pm from today. However, the bank officials and employees can stay at the office up to 5.00pm to complete the post-transactional processes.
Long queues of cars in front of the main gate of the secretariat was seen at around 8.00am. Officials and employees were in a hurry to enter the secretariat.
Visiting the public administration ministry this morning it was seen that many of the officials and staff were already in the office. Many were on the way. Only a few desks were empty.
An employee of the ministry said he lives in Mirpur. He comes to the office on government buses. The bus left for the ministry at 6.50am today and reached the secretariat at 7.55am.
KM Ali Azam, senior secretary of the public administration ministry, was seen busy with his work.
The officials at the office of cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said at around 8.30pm that he was in a meeting at the conference room.
Meanwhile, an official of the Press Information Department (PID) was saying that he was a bit late due to heavy traffic.
The officials and employees of the education ministry were also seen at their desks. They said Secondary and Higher Education Division secretary Abu Bakar Siddique also had started office in the morning as per the new schedule.
However, some of the officials and employees were reported late at work.