Malda, Dec. 28: The office for the divisional commissioner was opened on the district magistrate's office premises here today following the state's decision to form an administrative division comprising Malda, North and South Dinajpurs and Murshidabad districts.

However, apart from the divisional commissioner, no other official has been posted in the office.

Till now, Malda and North and South Dinajpurs were under Jalpaiguri division and Murshidabad was under the Presidency administrative division of the state.

Today, the office was inaugurated on the first floor of the district magistrate's office building. Subrata Biswas, the new divisional commissioner, was present, along with Malda district magistrate Sharad Dwivedi and other senior officers of civil and police administrations, at the event.

"Many administrative works are done through the divisional commissioner's office. Now that the office has been opened here, people living in these four districts would benefit," Dwivedi said.

While most people welcomed the state's decision to form the new division, some raised concerns about when the office would start functioning in a full-fledged manner.

According to officials, although Chanchal was announced a subdivision in 2001, there is still lack of required infrastructure in the area. Chanchal is 70km from here.

"Almost 16 years have passed since Chanchal was made a subdivision. An SDO and an SDPO have been posted there. But even today, no subdivisional jail has come up in Chanchal," Asif Mehboob, the Congress MLA of Chanchal, said.

Offices of departments like food and supplies, transport, irrigation, PHE, PWD, excise and education are yet to come up in Chanchal. "If one has work in the food and supplies department, he needs to travel all the way to Malda. We don't know when the new office would be ready in a full-fledged manner in terms of work force and infrastructure," Prangopal Poddar, the secretary of the Chanchal Byabsayee Samiti, said.