From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jun 6: While the State Government has finally decided to provide a holiday on the Fourth Saturday of every month to the government employees, the holiday on Good Friday stays, at least for the time being.

Similarly, the State Cabinet which met on Thursday with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy presiding, has not taken any decision on the proposal to scrap the public holidays for government offices on the Jayantis or birth anniversaries of prominent personalities as also Good Friday.

The Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government at its meeting on Thursday, has decided to reduce the number of Casual Leaves (CL) from 15 to 10 in a year.

Nationalised banks have already been providing holiday for its staff on second and fourth Saturdays of every month.

Already the government employees have been enjoying the holiday on second Saturday of the month.

A decision was taken after studying the five-day week work cycle in more than a dozen of states of the country.

There was a demand from the employees to seek holiday on fourth Saturday of every month, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told presspersons after the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

However, the decision on providing holiday on fourth Saturday of every month would not be implemented this year as the government has already drawn a calendar of working days and holidays this year (2019).

The State Cabinet has also decided not to extend the hours of office work during the rest of the days to give holiday on fourth Saturday of the month.

Earlier, a Cabinet sub-committee was constituted to look into the issue of whether or not government employees should have a five-day week or should they get holiday on the last Saturday of the month.

Smart Cards for Drinking Water ATMs

All drinking water ATMs, which have been installed to provide safe drinking water to people, will shift from coin-based service to smart card system soon.

There are 18,000 drinking water ATMs in the State, of which 16,000 are functioning on a regular basis.

The State Cabinet has decided to outsource management of ATMs to private agencies taluk-wise for ensuring round the clock availability of drinking water to the people. Now, nearly 800 ATMs remain out of order on any given day owing to technical glitches.

Following poor management of these water purifying plants/units in rural areas, the State Cabinet has decided to call tenders for outsource management of these ATMs to private parties, Krishna Byre Gowda said.

To move from coin based service to smart card system, the RDPR would give one time grant of Rs 5,000 per unit to the agency which bags contract through tender in each taluk. A sum of Rs 3,000 would be given to the agency for repairing the unit and its maintenance.

In several places, ATMS have become defunct by dropping metals and other materials. Use of smart cards would eliminate physical damage of ATMs, the Minister argued.

Tenders would be called in each taluk to ensure quick repair and easy maintenance. Moreover, taluk-wise tenders would also generate jobs to locals, the minister said.

In the second phase, the State Cabinet has approved aRs 450 crore project for filling 250 tanks of Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts through supply of treated waste water from the Koramangala-Challgahtta Valley (KC Valley).

It has decided to introduce counselling system for transfer of Group ‘C’ and ‘D’ employees by introducing the necessary legislation, the minister added.