Kolkata: On the first day of Unlock I, Kolkata witnessed hectic activities in offices, bee line of cars and two wheelers on the street and long queues of passengers waiting for
buses.
Though the state government will operate with 70 per cent staffs from June 8, many private offices functioned with nearly 50 per cent staffs on Monday. Many offices in Sector V, which is the IT hub functioned with 50 per cent staffs. The staffs sat maintaining physical distancing and wore masks. The spokesman of an IT firm said: "We have started working with 50 per cent staffs while the remaining 50 per cent are working from home. We will bring the employees in rotation. We have followed the lockdown norms."
Many private offices which had been working with skeleton staff increased their working force from Monday.
"We are coming to office after more than two months. We are happy to resume work,"
said Anil Srivastava who works in a mobile outlet in south Kolkata.
Gopal Chandra Saha, who owns a gift and a garment shop on Deshpriya Park said: "I am opening the shop after two months and expect customers soon. It is good that I
could resume my business," he said.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) opened its counters to collect property taxes from Monday. Binod Kumar, commissioner, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said he has discussed with the heads of different departments about the sitting arrangements of staffs who will resume work from June 8. Construction activities began with 100 per cent work force in New
Town. The workers put on masks and maintain physical distancing.
Apprehending that it would be difficult to get seat in the state run buses, many people took out their private cars and two wheelers to reach their place of work.
Long queues of passengers were seen in the bus terminuses as the bus travelled with 50 per cent passengers who wore masks and maintaining physical distancing while
travelling.
It was an unusual sight in Kolkata when hundreds of workers cycled to their place of work. "I regularly do cycling in my locality. I decided to go to office at BBD Bag on my cycle which I did for the first time. It was a nice experience," said Sujit Naskar, a resident of Kamalgazi off Narendrapur.