The government offices in the capital, including the Bangladesh Secretariat, hardly experienced any activities on Sunday, the first working day after the Eid vacation, although the attendance was better than that of the previous years. Most of the advisers and senior officials attended offices at the secretariat, the country’s administrative headquarters, in a ‘relaxed mood’ with some officials and employees are still on leave as another round of holidays begins Thursday for Durga Puja, the biggest religious festival of the country’s Hindu community.
 

The offices are likely to return to normal activities from Sunday after the Durga Puja holiday followed by two days of weekend on Friday and Saturday, some officials and employees at the secretariat said. Officials and employees were seen either exchanging Eid-greetings or gossiping on various issues, including politics and elections in December.Attendance in other government, semi-government and autonomous offices, banks and commercial establishments was also fewer than usual.
  
‘Attendance of officials and employees at the secretariat is better than that of the first working day after Eid holidays of the previous years as they are spirited this time,’ cabinet secretary Ali Imam Majumder told journalists at the secretariat.
  
A good number of officials and employees, however, explained the reason in a different way, saying that many of them could not leave Dhaka for their village homes for want of money.  ‘The government employees have already been hard-pressed due to the soaring prices of essential commodities… No one tipped us before Eid this year as we were used to get during the political governments,’ said a Class IV employee explaining the reason behind good attendance after Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims. ‘I could not go home to celebrate Eid simply because of financial crisis.’
  
Nur-A-Alam, an employee of the jute ministry, said very few of them had left Dhaka this year to celebrate Eid with their family members and relations.
  
‘Over 80 per cent of the officials and employees are attending offices at the ministry today,’ Abdul Mannan, an office assistant at the commerce ministry, said. The main entrance to the secretariat that usually looks deserted immediately after the Eid holidays remained crowded with visitors on Sunday and the number of vehicles inside the secretariat complex was all most as usual.
  
Commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman, LGRD and cooperatives adviser Anwarul Iqbal and law adviser AF Hassan Ariff held a meeting with communications adviser Ghulam Quader, who leads a five-member panel of advisers to resolve political crisis ‘for smooth transition to democracy.’ Women and children affairs adviser Rasheda K Choudhury, who also joined the meeting, said she had gone there to exchange Eid greetings with her cabinet colleagues.
  
In the afternoon, the advisers left the secretariat for the Chief Adviser’s Office to attend a cabinet meeting. Although the three-day Eid vacation began on Wednesday, some officials and employees enjoyed it for nine days taking two days of causal leave on September 26-27 as September 28 (Sunday) was also a public holiday on the occasion of Lailatul Qadr, followed by two days of weekend on Friday and Saturday (September 26-27).