Chandigarh: The Punjab government’s new office timings – 7.30 am to 2 pm – came into effect from Tuesday with the chief minister Bhagwant Mann and several of his ministers being among the first to reach their offices as per the new timings.
Earlier, the state government office hours were 9 am to 5 pm.
350 MW of power to be saved per day
Mann who later addressed the newspersons said that the move to have the new office-hours would help save 350 MW of power a day – and that since the new work hours would remain in force till July 15, the move is likely to save about Rs 40-Rs 42 crore as power bills. In other words, the reduction in the power consumption, if monetised, would thus save about Rs 17 crore a month, he said.
The new office timetable, however, does not have the 30-minute lunch break and yet, the employees would work an hour less than before.
Mann further said that there would also be no power cuts on industry and domestic consumers even as the state would now have enough power to be diverted to the agriculture sector for the upcoming paddy season. The peak consumption hours during the summer seasons are from around 1 pm to 4 pm and the new office-timing would help ease the load during those hours, he held.
Stating that the decision to have the early office-hours had been taken after consulting all the stakeholders, the chief minister further held that the decision had been taken to benefit common people to get their works done in government offices during the summer season. He also said that several foreign countries had such practices in accordance with their extreme climatic conditions, and added that the new time table would also ensure the optimum use of sunlight by the people.
Besides Mann, other ministers who came to their office before 7.30 am included Aman Arora, Brahm Shankar Jimpa, Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal and Harbhajan Singh.
