4th Saturdays to be government holiday in Karnataka; CL cut

Bengaluru: Karnataka Cabinet Thursday decided to declare fourth Saturdays a holiday for state government employees in addition to second Saturdays.

The in principle decision was taken based on a recommendation of the the state Pay Commission, Rural Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said.

The cabinet also decided to bring down the number of casual leaves from the existing 15 days to ten for the government employees, he told reporters here.

He said that in 2011 the Pay Commission hadrecommended five-day week and the recent paypanel also stuck to it.

Though the Cabinet discussed about reducing festival and other holidays such as on the occasion of 'jayantis', it felt such a move might hurt sentiments of certain sections.

It was decided to reduce the number of days of casual leave, he added.

He said whether the changes will be implemented immediately or from next year will be decided after discussions with the Chief Minister.

The cabinet also decided to go for counsellingthrough computerised system for transfer of group C and D government employees tobring in transparency. A draft Bill to this effect was approved.

Among the other decisions, itresolved to outsource the maintenance of pure drinking waterunits by calling for tender.

As many as 16,000 pure drinking water units out of the 18,000 approved by the Rural Development departmenthad been installed across the state at taluk levels, Gowda said adding there was no clear policy on their maintenance.

The cabinet asked the Chief Secretary to implementan ordinance promulgated to protect the interests of gazetted officers in 1998 in a way that it does notaffect the promotions of officers recruitedin subsequent years.

On whether the cabinet discussed aboutthe opposition to its last week decision on sale of3,667 acres of land to JSW Steel, Gowda said, the issue did not come up.