A harrowing experience

Shifting to a new, well-maintained building was a happy moment for the Trade Tax Department employees of Uttar Pradesh. However, they had no idea that the happiness would soon turn into a nightmare. VIJAY UPADHYAY reports from Agra on the unfortunate incidents that took place inside a new office building.

Considering the poor economic status of Uttar Pradesh, new office buildings do not hold priority status with the State Government and even departments earning crores in revenue are stuck with centuries-old buildings where they work in continuous fear of the structure crumbling on their heads.

The Trade Tax Department of Agra is one such department that has been functioning out of the haveli of Mirza Raja Jai Singh since Independence and a major part of this palatial building is currently in a dilapidated condition, demanding urgent and continuous repairs to prevent it from caving in.

As a result, when the Trade Tax Department's offices were shifted to a new building in 2005, the tax officials were ecstatic to be moved from the Mughal era structure into a well-ventilated, air-conditioned modern building.

But, with five colleagues dying in just two years of shifting into this building and many getting injured regularly in the line of duty, the officials have now begun to worry about the unseen hand - that of being trapped in a haunted building.

The belief gathered weight after muted whispers among the junior staffers of a former employee's "ghost" haunting the building reached their ears.

As a result of this superstitious belief that gripped the officers of the State Revenue Service which earns almost Rs 600 crore annually for the State's exchequer, a special havan and chanting of the Sundarkand was held at the office early this month in which all trade tax employees and officers participated in the hope of pleasing Lord Hanuman and getting the ghosts exorcised from the building.

Talking to The Pioneer, Madanlal, a junior employee working here for 33 years, said that the place where the new building had been constructed was previously the storage yard of the Trade Tax Department and in 1980, when the new building was nowhere in sight, his colleague VP Pathak died an unnatural death due to electrocution inside the store.

At that time, he said, all junior employees had demanded that a temple be constructed at the place Pathak died, in his remembrance but that was not done. "Soon afterwards, the storage yards were demolished and the foundation for the new building was laid at the place without the neev pujan," he said.

After the building was constructed, he added, a temple was constructed in one corner of the building but no idols were placed there and the building was formally inaugurated by UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, that too, without a havan which was required for the purification of the building.

"As a result, officers and junior employees alike are facing all sorts of trouble working inside the building. We are all under tremendous mental stress after five of our colleagues died for unexplained reasons in the past two years," Madanlal said.

Sunahrilal, who works as a watchman at the new building, said that "even though he had never seen the ghosts, I felt safe in the old building and have spent most of my night shifts chanting the Hanuman Chalisa in the old structure that still houses the offices of the tax lawyers."

Asked what they had in mind when this havan was held during office hours at the Trade Tax building, SC Srivastava, Additional Commissioner Trade Tax, said that "over the past two years, five State Revenue Department employees, including a Deputy Commissioner, an Assistant Commissioner, a junior employee and the son of a Deputy Commissioner have died under unnatural circumstances while a number of employees have faced life threatening situations." Sometimes, "they have grievously been beaten up by tax evaders," he added.

"As per Hindu belief a havan should be held before entering any new premises but the same was not done. This may have resulted in the mishaps that have been taking place with officials," he said.

Now, with the havan having finally been conducted, a positive change in the "movement of planets" could be expected with the grace of Lord Hanuman. "Hopefully, the building shall now be free of "negative energies" that had been affecting all of us," Srivastava surmised.

Surprisingly, even if we pin it down to a psychological sop, post-havan, the tax officials have been claiming that they are feeling better working out of the new building. They are sure Lord Hanuman has been appeased and is now watching over them.