Capital still in holiday mood

The capital city remained in holiday mood on Thursday even though government, semi-government offices, banks and financial institutions and some major business houses reopened after a three-day Eid vacation.
A small section of people started returning to the city after celebrating Eid with near and dear ones at their village homes. But many will take the advantage of this weekend. The city is likely to get its usual look after some more days.  
A random visit to some public offices and banks including the Bangladesh Secretariat revealed that the attendance was poor and most of the officials passed idle time after exchanging Eid greetings.
Almost all the officials left the offices at 3:00 except for a few fourth class staffs.
During a visit to the Secretariat, it was found many ministers were on leave while some of them went to their offices and passed time by exchanging pleasantries with their colleagues.
Housing Ministry sources told the FE that the minister and some of the high officials were on leave.
The Secretariat is expected to get the usual look next Sunday.
The city roads were almost free from usual hustle-bustle, noise, traffic jam and crowd on the first working day after the biggest religious festival of Muslims. City buses in small number were plying with a few passengers.
Women and children in colourful dresses were seen in large number on Thursday as they went to various amusement parks and places. A few traffic police personnel were visible at major city intersections.
Bus drivers were happy as it took only 15 to 20 minutes to reach any destination. Although city transports had low passengers, the CNG auto-rickshaw drivers had a busy time carrying passengers to various places.
Although the traffic was thin and the traffic policemen also passed relaxed time on the streets with low number of vehicles, there was a long queue of cars in front of various spots like Dhaka Shishu Park, Dhaka Zoo or Ramna and Suhrawardi parks.
Most of the shops at various shopping malls, business centres and offices were closed. Many of them will be opened by next week.
While visiting Karwan Bazar branch of Dhaka Bank, this reporter found there was no customer at the cash counters and the officials were passing idle time.
Senior principal officer Jesmin Nahar said there was hardly any client Thursday as most of their clients fulfilled banking needs before Eid. If they had one day more holiday for Eid, there might not have been any problem, she added.