Bhubaneswar: In a bid to increase efficiency of the administration and make it more citizen-centric, Odisha government had on Saturday revised the working hours of government employees besides declaring fourth Saturday of every month as a general holiday.
As per the new schedule, all government offices are supposed to open at 10 AM. However, after a reality check carried out by OTV on the first day under the new rules, confusion and deviations were galore and several government offices wore a deserted look even after 11 AM.
It is pertinent to mention here that the daily working hours of government offices have been revised to 10 AM to 5.30 PM.
While most government offices were virtually empty, only one employee against a total strength of ten had arrived on time at the State Health Services Directorate. The scenes at the Higher Education Directorate were totally different as the office had not opened by the time our camera team visited the spot.
“We are bound to come to office as per government order. Most of the staff usually turns up at 10 AM but as it is a Monday, many might be out of station which could have caused delay,” said Mahendra Kumar Mallick, section officer posted at the Higher Education Department.
“The employees might be coming as one out of the two elevators is out of order. We will take steps to caution other staff to come on time,” said Sachindra Kumar Singh, a senior official of the Coordination department.
The Odisha government had also ordered that the first half of every fourth Saturday will be devoted for brainstorming by the Heads of Offices at all levels. The heads of departments were asked to deliberate on how to implement the government’s 5Ts principle -Technology, Teamwork, Transparency, Time and Transformation.
Later today, after confusion over decision to declare 4th Saturday holiday, Odisha government came out with a fresh notification clarifying that the 2nd Saturday of every month shall continue to be general holiday for the State government employees.