NEW DELHI, MAY 12: Delhi's bureaucracy has not taken too kindly to the new office timings. The office hours for the Delhi Government began today at 8.30 am and ended at 5 pm instead of the usual 9.30-6.30 schedule.There was not much change in the offices, except that they all left a bit early. Still, there were complaints. That they are forced to get up at inhuman hours. That they can't leave at 5 pm as their superiors stay on late.The Chief Minister's office was open past 6 pm while Speaker Prem Singh's office closed at 6 pm. Says S N Sikka, secretary to Assembly Speaker Prem Singh: ``Do you expect us to leave at 5 pm when our superiors are working or when there is a lot of work which have deadlines?''Another officer in the Old Secretariat who did not want to be named, fumed: ``If this change is meant to save electricity, then the Government should not allow any office to remain open after 5 pm. Now, we will be spending more electricity as we will start the day early and leave at the same time -around 8 pm, 9 pm, or later.''Health Minister A K Walia, whose office was working well after 7 pm, confirms his misgivings. ``Our day is of 18 hours and these timings apply to people who have eight-hour days,'' says Walia.Some employees complain that the change in office hours has turned their lives upside down. Take this. ``The office may start early but there is no train for people like me who come from Ghaziabad. And when the day ends at 5 pm, there is no return train,'' says an employee at Education Secretary Narendra Prasad's office.The idea of leaving early is not making them happy either. ``Who wants to leave at 5 pm in this summer's heat?'' says an official at the Directorate of Higher Education. ``It is not going to rain everyday, like it did today,'' he says.Debashri Mukherjee, an additional director, says the first half of the new timings will be ignored but the second half will be obeyed to the dot. ``People will continue to come late and can leave early too,'' she says, ``rain orshine.''
