The Mamata Banerjee government issued an order on Wednesday evening making attendance mandatory for employees, who were drafted for duty on roster basis on Thursday when the joint committee of several central trade unions would enforce a nation-wide general strike against the Centre’s economic policies, including new labour and farm laws.

The order issued by the finance secretary said those who would not report for duty on Thursday without specified reasons would face deduction of a day’s salary and a day from his/her service life as all kinds of leaves had been cancelled for the day.

Sources said the state government could not make attendance of all employees mandatory like on previous bandhs days because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Government offices are being run with only 50 per cent of the employees because of Covid 19. That is why employees who have been drafted for duty on Thursday were asked to report for duty positively while remaining employees would work from home,” said a senior government official.

All kinds of leaves were cancelled on bandh days since Trinamul came to power in 2011 as part of its attempts to restore lost work culture of the state.

Since then, the government has been issuing orders cancelling all kinds of leaves during the bandh days in the state. Not only this, the state government has been initiating action against all the employees, who did not report for duty on bandh days despite stiff resistance from Opposition employees’ union like the Coordination Committee, the umbrella organisation of the employees unions back by the Left Parties.

“We can’t change our stance against strikes even as the bandh this time has been called against the policies of the central government,” said a minister.

The sources said all the departments had been asked to inform the employees who were drafted for roster duty on the day in advance so that the employees could attend office without any problem.

The state government has initiated required steps to ensure that buses, taxis and other modes of transpiration function normally.

The chief secretary has spoken to all district magistrates, police superintendents and other officers to ensure that commuters don’t face trouble on roads, said sources.