Karnataka govt will not ask IT companies to open offices, WFH may continue: DCM Ashwath Narayan
Bengaluru, Dec 10: The Karnataka government on Thursday said it will not ask IT companies to open office spaces and that the work from home arrangement that is currently in place may continue for a few more months due to prevailing COVID-19 situation.
Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also incharge for IT and BT department, made it clear that the government cannot mandate the companies to open their offices and ask employees to report to work there, instead of working from home or work from anywhere.
He was responding to a question raised by an Independent MLA from Hoskote Sharath Bachegowda in the assembly.
"Eventually, they (offices) will open. The companies will take a call when the time is right..," he said adding that there was no thought before the government to ask the companies to make its employees to attend to work at offices, also the situation is still not appropriate for it.
Bachegowda while pointing out that most of the IT workforce was still working from home, claimed that it has affected productivity, and asked the government to put pressure on the companies to open offices.
He also pointed to its impact on other dependent work forces like transport.
Udupi MLA K Raghupati Bhat too said that with IT companies yet to open, cabs, canteens and other dependent livelihoods are getting affected, and it was time for the government to ask companies to open offices.
Responding to this Narayan said once offices open up, ancillary services will also get back on track, and maintained that work from home was still the safe option due to the prevailing situation.
He pointed out that technology came to the rescue of several sectors during the pandemic as he acknowledged the efforts of the IT, startups and innovation sector.
Several IT companies closed their offices in March and asked its employees to work remotely as Covid-19 infections started increasing in the state, especially Bengaluru.
The union government has extended connectivity norms for work from home for IT and BPO companies till December 31.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll rises to 10 with recovery of one more body; 3 tourists still missing
Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a child was retrieved on Saturday evening from Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy that took place two days ago to ten, while search continued for three missing tourists.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening with some of the survivors alleging negligence and safety lapses such as life jackets not being distributed in time.
The body recovered on Saturday evening was possibly that of six-year-old Viraj Soni, said Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra.
"The identity will be confirmed after family members identify the body," he told PTI.
Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria, his five-year-old son Tamil, and another child Mayuram (5) who had come from southern India were still missing.
Authorities have arranged equipment to search deep waters of the dam and are getting a generator to facilitate diving operations, Mishra added.
Divers and disaster response teams have expanded the search radius to five km, he said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued, police said.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, joined the search operation that resumed at 5 on Saturday morning. The operation, involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, was briefly affected at around 9 am due to strong winds, officials said.
Post-mortem examinations of nine deceased persons have been completed, Mishra said.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will also register a First Information Report in the case soon," he said.
Police said CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned operation of similar vessels in the state.
