Central force jawans were posted at all six gates of Nabanna — the Bengal secretariat — and additional police personnel were sent to check cars of top officers and bags of common employees when the staff left offices in a bid to ensure that no files were taken out of the 14-storey building on Monday.

The police activities started soon after chief secretary Dushyant Nariala issued an order.

“All Departmental Secretaries and Head of Offices are requested to ensure that no important paper or file is removed/damaged or otherwise taken out from the offices. No unauthorised copying/scanning shall be permitted. Further, all files/important papers/communication shall be properly accounted for. The Head of Departments and Departmental Secretaries shall personally ensure that this is followed in letter and spirit. Personal responsibility shall be fixed for any instance of deviation,” reads the order.

An officer, who was looking after the deployment of the police personnel at all the gates, said: “Around 2pm, an instruction came from our superiors that no one should be allowed to take anything away from Nabanna. We posted policemen at all six gates of Nabanna and started checking the bags of the employees who were leaving the building.”

Once the gates were secured, some policemen raised questions about how they could check the cars of superior officers, as the home secretary, the finance secretary, and the under secretary were at the building.

“We were then informed that central force jawans would be sent to check top officials’ cars,” said the police officer.

Around 3pm, three sections of the central force jawans reached the secretariat. In each of the six gates, four jawans were posted.

Around 5pm, there was a long queue of employees getting their bags checked before leaving Nabanna.

One of the employees said he was not unhappy at all, as he did not find anything wrong in checking everybody to ensure that no file was taken out of the building.

“I heard that not only the employees but also the cars of top officers were being checked. I personally feel that there is nothing wrong if the new government wants to ensure that no file is taken out, particularly after irregularities took place in almost every sphere by the outgoing government,” said the employee.

A section of the officials said that the authorities should know that hardly anything was done in hard copies. All files are prepared in e-files after the e-office system was introduced.

“Instead of focusing on the hard copies, the authorities should ensure that no files are deleted from the server,” said an official.

Another official said that although the majority of the files were mooted in the e-office network, all controversial issues were dealt with in hard copies to ensure that they could not be tracked in the e-office network.

“For example, several reappointments were given to the retired government officers, including several former chief secretaries. Moreover, payment to the lawyers who fought in favour of the state government in the Supreme Court was also given through handwritten notes on hard copies. So the decision to check the bags and cars of the employees and officers has some relevance,” said another official.