kolkata the usually laidback unhurried environs of the writers buildings were engulfed by an air of anxiety on thursday morning concern over the impending shift dominated discussions at the desks and in the corridors canteens and cubicles the biggest concern was for transport it would be a tough commute especially for those from north 24paraganas and beyond who rely heavily on the local train service through sealdah others are finding it difficult just to come to terms with the idea of moving across the river group d staff manoranjan saha from sodepur was shocked to learn about the transfer in the morning papers the first thought to cross his mind was that he must now travel to rabindra sadan and then catch a bus to reach mandirtala all my life i took a train to sealdah and then caught a bus to writers sometimes i simply walked down the entire journey takes less than an hour but now it might take me close to two hours because it wont be easy getting into a bus from rabindra sadan also it will take longer to travel from sealdah to rabindra sadan i fear that the bus services will be irregular at least initially said saha a finance department employee said he couldnt concentrate on his work i wish it was a rumour it will be a nightmare for people like me who travel from north 24parganas he said at the information and even as employees prepared for a short programme to mark tagores death anniversary the talk invariably veered around to the chief ministers latest plan its a weird move said an employee it will land 4000 writers employees in trouble travel time will increase and cut into working hours efficiency will suffer you cant blame the employees for they are not used to commuting till howrah many are yet to figure out even the bus routes he said a senior employee of the department was however optimistic very few big cities have a secretariat in the central business district he pointed out also the shift to howrah will reduce traffic congestion in kolkata once people start travelling to mandirtala transport arrangements will improve this is how new townships and areas develop mandirtala wont be the same once the state secretariat moves there he said employees unions slammed the decision with one calling it a conspiracy to hand over writers to foreign agencies the move is unfair and a conspiracy we dont accept it said debaprasad haldar of unity forum state coordination committee joint secretary manoj kanti guha said the renovation work could have been done without shifting the offices renovations are supposed to be done periodically why should the entire secretariat be transferred we demand to know the exact amount of money that will be spent on the transfer he said kapil banerjee of the west bengal state government employees federation said that the argument that writers has turned into an inferno was baseless the arrangements for shift will lead