Punjab Govt Orders Employees To Stay Available On Phones 24x7, Including Holidays

Chandigarh: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab on Monday issued directions to all the state government employees to remain available on their phones 24x7, even on the holidays.

Issued by the state personnel department, the instructions, have asked all the senior officials including special chief secretaries, additional chief secretaries, financial commissioners, principal secretaries and secretaries, to ensure that no employee under their command, switch off their phones and to remain available on their phone after the office hours, during week-ends and even on public holidays for official and administrative reasons.

The government order says that there are times when the administrative work needs to be done immediately, thus necessitating the need for officers’ availability. It is observed that their phones are either switched off, remain out of coverage area, or diverted to other numbers or on flight mode. This impacts the administrative work….’’, the order reads.

Signed by the special secretary, personnel, says that unavailability of officials on mobile phones hampers the essential administrative work and disrupts the provision of public service. Senior officials, who did not want to be named, also held that it was observed that there was a tendency among some employees to switch off their mobile phones immediately after their office-hours or when they are on holiday which hampered the office work as the officials working in office could not contact them for any inquiry.

Pertinently, it is not the first time that such a directive has been issued for the government officials. During the tenure of chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in 2017, had also issued similar instructions, however, its rationale was that since officials’ mobile bills were reimbursed, they were expected to remain available 24x7.

Earlier, introduced by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government in 2012, the mobile phone allowance for the government employees, also aimed to ensure officials’ availability.