The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State Government shelves plan for five-day week

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Thursday, Jul 10, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State Government shelves plan for five-day week

T.S. Ranganna

Government says the move will not serve any purpose
No proposal to increase retirement age to 60

Bangalore: The Bharatiya Janata Party Government has reportedly decided to shelve the idea of introducing five-day week in the State stating that it would not serve any purpose.

According to sources in the State Government secretariat, the proposal mooted by the then Chief Secretary P.B. Mahishi during the President’s Rule was before Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister K.V. Raju and that he had taken a view that there was no need for reducing the number of working days.

The sources said that the Government was not inclined to increase the retirement age of its employees to 60 years, on the pretext that it may utilise the funds in terms of retirement benefits to around 15,000 employees, who would be retiring in the next two years, for development activities.

While the party may earn the goodwill of these employees who would have benefited from two more years of service, it would incur the wrath of thousands of unemployed youth. Instead, it was advised that the Government should make sincere efforts to fill the one lakh-odd posts, which were vacant for years owing to finance crunch.

The sources said that some office-bearers of the Karnataka State Government Employees’ Association wanted to pressure the Government to increase the retirement age, but the government had reportedly told them that it may agree to it with some conditions.

The State Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Haranahalli Ramaswamy, which wanted downsizing the State Government workforce, also supported a section of the top officers to put down the proposal to increase the retirement age.

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