New timings go for a toss; FM, babus report late at Punjab Civil Secretariat
Chandigarh, May 3
Employees in Punjab are grudgingly following the new office timing orders but most of the ministers skipped offices today.
Only two ministers — Dr Baljit Kaur and Chetan Singh Jouramajra — reached the Punjab Civil Secretariat on time. Finance Minister Harpal Cheema came at 8.30 am while the babus were still trudging along at 8.20 am.
While the two ministers left by 11.30 am, the third also left early. Some of the ministers, it is learnt, were either already in Jalandhar or headed there to campaign for the party in the upcoming Jalandhar byelection.
However, most of the employees expressed resentment with the decision. Women with young children arrived around 7 am and headed to the crèche on the ground floor to leave their children there and head to their work desks. Some of them later went back to pick up the babies and send them to playschools at 8.45 am.
Many other employees, who come from other cities, said though the office timings had been changed, the corresponding change in the bus time table had not been made, forcing them to leave home at “odd” hours and reached the city at 7 am. Some employees posted with senior officers also cribbed that they were forced to work till 5 pm
yesterday.
“Our working hours have increased from 7.30 am to 5 pm,” said a Superintendent posted with a senior bureaucrat. The most “harassed” were the security staff and safai karamcharis, who had to report for work at 6 am.
Sukhchain Khera, convener of the Sanjha Mullazam Manch, said many employees felt harassed. “A review of the impact of the changed office timings will be done by the government in 15 days. We intend raising these concerns at that meeting,” he said.
Canteen now caters for breakfast
The Secretariat canteen has made extra arrangements to serve breakfast. It is learnt that the canteen made 250 paranthas, besides kachoris, but all were exhausted by 9 am
CEO office exempted
Two departments have sought exemption from the new timings – Chief Electoral Officer and Milked. While Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua has given approval to the CEO office to operate from 9 am to 5 pm till the election is over
